The  Christian  Consciousness 


BR  121  .B5  1895  | 

Black,  J.  Sutherland  1846-  I 

1923. 
The  Christian  consciousness 


The 


CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 


Its  Relation  to  Evolution 


IN   MORALS    AND    IN   DOCTRINE 


J.  S.  BLACK 


BOSTON 
LEE    AND    SHEPARD    PUBLISHERS 

lO       MILK       STREET 


Copyright,  1895,  by  Lek  a:sv>  Shepard 


All  riqhtfi  reserved 


The  Christian  Consciousness 


Typography  by  C.  J.  Peters  &  Son,  Boston 


Presswork  by  S.  J.  Parkhill  &  Co. 


PREFACE 


The  literature  that  has  been  'devoted  to  the 
"Christian  Consciousness"  has  been  of  a  frag- 
mentary character.  It  has  been  employed  for 
special  purposes  from  the  time  of  Schleier- 
macher  to  the  present  day.  This  will  appear 
more  at  lengtli  in  the  course  of  this  work. 
But  the  employment  of  any  tenet  in  philosophy 
or  in  doctrine  for  special  purposes,  Avhile  it 
demonstrates  the  apologetic  value  of  the  doc- 
trine, is  unfavorable  to  its  general  reception 
and  systematic  study.  It  receives  little  more 
than  a  passing  notice  from  Avriters  on  system- 
atic theology  and  dogma.  It  has  been  called 
into  the  court  of  public  discussion  as  a  witness 
in  favor  of  sensationalism,  of  Andover  theo- 
logy so-called,  and  of  various  views  in  escha- 
tology.  The  opponents  of  these  views  naturally 
and  alm6st  inevitably  regarded  the  Avitness 
with  suspicion.  Current  controversy  partakes 
largely  of  the  nature  of  special  pleading,  and 
the  first  thing  to  do  was  to  discredit  the  char- 
acter and  the  testimony  of  the  witness. 


IV  PREFACE 

There  are  several  questions  that  must  be 
answered,  such  as  :  What  is  consciousness  ? 
Is  there  a  Christian  consciousness?  If  there 
is,  what  are  its  relations  to  consciousness  in 
general,  and  to  the  religious  consciousness  in 
particular?  What  are  its  functions?  Has  it 
been  hitherto -neglected  ?  Is  it  an  old  and 
well-known  phase  of  the  truth  masquerading 
under  a  new  name,  or  is  it  a  hitherto  much 
neglected  and  little  used  part  of  the  armor 
of  the  Clu'istian  apologist? 

In  an  interview  with  General  Booth,  he  is 
reported  to  have  said  that,  while  he  believed 
the  Bible  and  wished  men  to  read  it,  the  aim 
of  his  army  was  to  bring  men  to  God  rather 
than  to  the  Book.  Their  endeavor  was  to  get 
men  to  pray.  This  was  the  point  of  contact 
with  God.  He  admitted  that  he  rather  dreaded 
Bible  classes,  because  they  got  men  into  dis- 
putation. Removed  from  the  Salvation  Army 
by  a  whole  diameter,  but  moving  in  the  same 
circle,  we  find  the  German  theologians,  to  whom 
the  usually  accepted  proofs  of  the  inspiration 
of  Scripture  are  unsatisfactory  and  insufficient, 
but  who  can  accept  their  inspiration  by  the 
appeal  to,  and  the  testimony  of,  the  Christian 
consciousness.  Less  logical  and  more  vague, 
but  of  equal  significance,  is  the  Christo-cen- 
tric  contemporary  theology. 


PREFACE  V 

The  study  of  tlie  Christian  consciousness 
is  in  its  infancy,  but  the  study  of  it  is  an  aid 
to  the  development  of  it.  It  seems  strange, 
at  this  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  that  there  should  be  an  undevel- 
oped, and  partly  unused,  function  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  ;  a  function  which  not  only  accounts 
for  moral  and  dogmatic  phenomena,  but  also 
makes  God  more  real  to  men.  It  comes  at  a 
time  of  need.  The  glory  of  the  Reformation 
Avas  the  exaltation  of  faith,  and  the  substituting: 
the  infallible  Bible  for  the  infallible  church. 
But  when  infallible  systems  of  theology  took 
the  place  of  the  infallible  book,  the  church,  that 
had  glowed  in  its  contact  with  the  living  Word, 
became  chilled  at  the  touch  of  dead  ortho- 
doxies. The  exaltation  of  the  Word  became 
a  delusion  and  a  snare  when  pains  and  penal- 
ties were  attached  to  any  interpretation  of  it 
differing  from  that  of  the  majority.  The 
immediate  result  of  the  Reformation  was  the 
formulation  of  several  creeds  and  orders  of 
church  government,  each  of  which  made  a 
practical  claim  of  infallibility  for  its  own  faith 
and  discipline.  In  days  of  polemic  warfare 
tlie  scent  for  heresy  becomes  keener  ajid 
keener.  It  was  in  order  to  reason  and  debate 
concerning  the  letter  of  the  Word,  but  it  was 


VI  PREFACE 

dangerous  to  speak  too  freely  about  its  spirit. 
If  any  one  was  rash  enough  to  appeal  to  his 
own  inner  light,  his  own  Christian  conscious- 
ness and  divine  persu;ision,  it  was  at  once 
declared  to  be  a  })resumption  and  spiritual  pride 
that  savored  of  blasphemy.  The  tyranny  of 
creeds  resembles  political  tyrannies  in  its  in- 
stinctive desire  to  keep  men  under.  The 
dismal  exaltation  of  the  divine  sovereignty 
until  it  distorted  the  character  of  God  was 
the  instinctive  though  undesigned  policy  of  ec- 
clesiastical oligarchies.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness had  to  hide  its  diminished  head, 
and  even  doubt  and  condemn  itself.  Times 
have  changed,  and  the  Christian  consciousness 
has  its  part  to  play  in  the  momentous  era  of 
change  and  development  on  which  the  world 
seems  to  be  entering.  Hitherto  we  have  spoken 
of  the  Bible,  the  church,  and  the  reason  as 
being  sources  of  authority.  To  these  three 
the  spirit  of  the  age  demands  the  addition  of 
the  Christian  consciousness,  as  being  not  only 
a  source  of  authority  in  and  of  itself,  but  also 
as  being  a  touchstone  for  the  trying  of  tlie 
Bible,  the  church,  and  the  reason. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

What  is  it  ? —  Tlieories  about  consciousness  supplementary  to, 
ratlier  than  antagonistic  to,  each  otlier.  —  Locke,  Cousin, 
Descartes,  Sir  ^YilliaIn  Hamilton,  McCosh,  Kant,  Herbert 
Spencer.  —  Instinct,  intuition,  consciousness.  —  Religious 
and  Christian  consciousness.  Opinions  of  Dean  Mansell, 
William  F.  Warren,  D.D.,  Professor  Candlish,  Professor 
Kaftan. — Definition  of  the  Christian  consciousness.  —  Its 
imperative  categories.  —  Illumination  that  comes  from  will- 
ing to  do  God's  will.  —  Reformation  theology  not  favorable 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  consciousness.  —  Contem- 
porary misconceptions  as  to  Cliristian  consciousness. — 
Relation  of  the  Christian  consciousness  to  progressive 
morality 1 

CHAPTER   II 

THE   DIGNITY    OF   MAN 

Reformation  theology  belittled  man.  —  It  was  one-sided. — 
Lecky  on  exaggerations  of  human  depravity.  —  The  Eighth 
Psalm.  — Elohim.  —  Christian  consciousness  sees  both  sides 
of  this  truth.  —  Evolution  testifies  to  the  dignity  of  man.  — 
Professor  Drummond's  "Ascent  of  Man."  —  Obscurity  of 
the  beginnings  of  all  civilization.  —  The  progress  of  Eng- 
vii 


Vlll  CONTENTS 

lish-speaking  peoples.  —  Italy.  —  England.  —  Scotland.  — 
United  States.  —  Sir  William  Dawson  on  inspired  achieve- 
ment   26 

CHAPTER  III 

THE    DESTINY    OF    MAN 

The  qualifications  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures.  —  In- 
fallibility not  claimed  for  the  Christian  consciousness.  —  The 
honor  it  puts  upon  man.  —  Evolution  and  man.  —  Future 
possibilities  for  him  do  not  meet  the  Scriptural  statements 
concerning  him.  —  His  destiny  a  future  of  divine  possibili- 
ties.—  Tliree  great  missing  links. — Mr.  Huxley's  view  of 
develoj)ment  coming  to  an  end.  ^  The  estimate  which 
science  makes  of  man.  —  The  Christian  consciousness  ac- 
cepts and  approves  his  dignity  and  destiny 46 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE   EVOLUTION   OF   MORALS 

Considerations  that  have  prejudiced  certain  thinkers  against 
Christian  consciousness.  —  Sclileiermaclier. — The  Ritchslian 
school.  ~  Professor  Harris.  —  Dr.  Francis  Patton. — Dr. 
Behrends.  —  Standards  of  Scripture  interpretation.  —  Her- 
bert Spencer.  —  Henry  Lewes.  — Historians  of  civilization. 
—  Utilitarianism. — The  struggle  for  existence.  —  Present- 
day  sociology.  —  Maurice's  social  morality,  theoretical  and 
pi-actical.  —  Views  of  Benjamin  Kidd  and  Professor  Drum- 
mond 61 

CHAPTER   V 

THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS   AND    SLAVERY 

In  ancient  times.  —  In  Puritan  times.  —  John  Bacon's  will.  — 
The  evolution  of  opinion  about  slavery.  —The  relation  of 


CONTENTS  IX 

discovery  and  invention  to  evolution  in  morals.  —  The 
earlier  opponents  of  slavery.  —  Samuel  Sewall. — Legal 
action  of  different  countries.  —  Opinions  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  iSIonroe,  and  Patrick  Henry. —  Opinions  of  clergy- 
men during  the  "War of  the  Rebellion.  — The  political  econ- 
omist's explanation. —  Dr.  ]\Iunger  on  slavery.  —  Tiie  ijart 
played  by  the  Christian  consciousness 82 

CHAPTER   VI 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS  AS  RELATED  TO  INTEMPERANCE, 
THE   OPIUxAI    TRADE,    AND    GAMBLING 

Total  abstinence  a  recent  reform.  —  Tlie  former  and  present 
relation  of  the  church  to  it.  —  The  Abstemii.  — The  Naza- 
rites.  —  Parallel  between  slavery  and  intemperance.  — 
Opium  trade.  —  Its  unique  character.  —  The  conscience  of 
Britain  against  it.  — The  secret  of  its  power.  —  Relation  of 
enlightened  public  sentiment  to  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness.—  Gambling  the  vice  common  to  heathenism  and  to 
Christianity. — Tlie  possibility  of  heathenism  condemning 
gambling.  —  The  growth  of  Christian  sentiment  against 
gambling.  — Mercantile   gambling.  —  Huxley's   pessimism. 

—  Silence  of  Scripture  on  this  vice.  —  Professor  Proctor. — 
Similar  questions  that  might  be  considered       ....     103 

CHAPTER   VII 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  EVOLUTION  IN  MORALS 

The  charges  brought  against  the  church,  and  the  inferences 
therefrom.  —  Misrepresentation  of  the  cliurcli.  — Its  human 
side. —Its  size.  —  Its  age.  —  Its  prime  function.  —  Its  lax 
discipline  in  regard  to  conduct,  and  its  vigilance  in  dogma. 

—  The  environment  of  moral  movements.  —  The  vmion  with 
the  state.  —  The  opposiWi  extreme. — The  church  not  a 
club 125 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE     CHRISTIAN     CONSCIOUSNESS,   AND     THE     RELIGIOUS     CON- 
SCIOUSNESS   OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD 

Agreement  of  geology  and  revelation.  — Sir  William  Dawson's 
view.  —  Noah.  —  Abraham.  —  Melchisedec.  —  Job.  —  Jethro, 
Baalam.  —  Contact  of  Hebrew  and  Greek.  —  Septuagint. — 
Huxley.  — The  logos.  —  The  condition  of  the  religious  con- 
sciousness when  Christ  came.  —  The  centuries  of  silence.  — 
Greek  thought.  —  Buddhism.  —  Confucianism  and  Taoism. 

—  The  condition  of  morality  when  Jesus  was  on  earth   .     142 

CHAPTER   IX 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS  TO   DOCTRINE 

Has  there  been  an  evolution  of  doctrine?  —  The  difficulty  of 
separating  morals  from  doctrine.  —  Various  definitions  of 
doctrine.  —  The  salvation  of  infants.  —  Original  sin  and  in- 
herited guilt.  —  Sacramentarianism.  —  The  spirit  of  the  age. 

—  Salvation  of  the  heathen.  —  Andover  theology.  —  Rational 
sanctions  and  exegetical  justification.  —  Do  Christians  be- 
lieve that  the  heathen  are  perishing? — Features  common 
to  infant  salvation,  and  the  salvation  of  the  heathen. — 
The  character  of  God,  when  involved.  — The  legal  infliction 
of  torture.  —  Exceptions  to  the  prevailing  belief.  —  What  has 
brought  about  the  change  ? 163 

CHAPTER  X 

CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS   AND   WOMAN'S    PLACE   IN   THE 
CHURCH 

A  question  of  doctrine  as  well  as  of  polity.—  Paul's  teaching. 
—  Woman's  place  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. —  Opin- 
ion of  Robinson  of  Leyden. —  Woman's  evolution  as  a 
teacher.  — As  a  Christian  worker.  —  Study  of  medicine.— 


CONTENTS  XI 

Salvation  Army. —  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor.  —  Woman  in  college  and  in  theological  semi- 
naries.—  Application  to  this  question  of  Mr.  Kidd's  philos- 
ophy. —  Of  Professor  Drummond's.  —  George  MacDonald's 
•  view. —The  "  Gesta  Christi."  —  Woman  in  the  religious 
community.  —  In  the  age  of  chivalry 183 

CHAPTER  XI 

CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS    AND    THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT 

The  thirst  for  hlood.  —  War.  —  The  War  of  the  Eehellion. — 
A  moral  problem. —  As  a  peacemaker  Christianity  has 
been  a  failure.  — The  duel. —  Severities  of  the  criminal 
code.  —  Judicial  combat.  —  The  prize-ring  and  college  foot- 
ball.—Danger  a  popular  attraction. —Societies  for  the 
prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals.  — Admiration  of  personal 
daring. — Danger  of  the  loss  of  manliness  and  courage. — 
The  moral  force  of  Charles  Loring  Brace. —The  problem 
presented  in  this  chapter 202 

CHAPTER   XII 

OBJECTIONS   AND    POSSIBILITIES 

Objections  to  evolution  in  morals.  —View  of  President  E.  G. 
Robinson.  — Unchanging  morality. —When  true.  — Xon- 
Christian  ethical  systems. —The  divine  and  the  human 
thought.  —  Joseph  Cook.  —  Christian  consciousness  and 
sectarianism.— Hindrance  to  union.  —  Schleiermacher's 
views. —Eschatology.  — The  questions  raised  by  physical 
science  and  by  the  higher  criticism  not  to  be  dreaded.  — 
The  moral  difficulties  are  real  and  persistent. —Various 
kinds  of  doubt. —  The  revealing  of  the  Father.  — The  eve 
of  great  changes.  —  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations, 
The  Salvation  Army,  and  Young  People's  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Endeavor.  —  The  healing  of  schism 219 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   CHRISTIAN    CONSCIOUSNESS 

Consciousness  is  the  knowledge  of  that 
whicli  passes  in  one's  own  mind.  It  is  at  once 
the  knowledge  and  the  power  to  know.  It  is  the 
instrument  of  observation  as  well  as  of  intro- 
spection ;  and  therefore  by  the  observations  of 
consciousness  we  can  attain  to  conclusions  as  to 
principles  or  morals  before  we  have  had  expe- 
rience to  guide  us.  Physiology  cannot  furnish 
any  explanation  of  thought  or  of  consciousness. 
In  common  speech  the  knowledge  of  sensation 
is  familiarly  and  vaguely  expressed  by  this 
word,  and  we  have  modifying  phrases  which  are 
not  always  philosophically  accurate.  Such  ex- 
pressions as  partially  conscious,  painfully  con- 
scious, semi-conscious,  and  fully  conscious,  may 
not  be  exact  terms  in  metaphysics,  but  they 
convey  ideas  witli  sufficient  clearness. 
1 


2  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

What  is  consciousness  ?  What  is  the  prov- 
ince of  it  ?  and  what  is  tlie  power  of  it  ?  are 
questions  whicli  have  been  keenly  debated  by 
the  various  schools  of  philosophy.  Is  the  pure 
development  of  reason  better  secured  by  ab- 
straction from  all  finite  and  material  objects, 
than  by  mingling  with  and  comprehending  the 
world  in  which  we  live?  This  question  was 
old  in  the  days  of  Aristotle.  Know  thyself  is 
the  watchword  of  philosophy.  Knowledge  of 
one's  self  is  consciousness,  but  not  the  whole 
of  consciousness.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the 
possibility  of  science  and  of  morality  rests  on 
the  amiversality  of  consciousness.  Man  comes 
out  of  a  past  about  which  he  learns  more  or 
less ;  and  he  dies  at  the  threshold  of  a  future 
concerning  which  reason  has  taught  him  to  an- 
ticipate a  little,  and  faith  has  enabled  him  to 
prophesy  many  things.  He  is  a  limi'ted  frag- 
ment of  an  unknown  whole  ;  but  he  can  look 
over  the  edge  of  his  territory  into  the  undiscov- 
ered country,  for  he  can  reason  from  particulars 
to  generals.  The  unlimited  and  unexplored  be- 
comes a  part  of  his  consciousness.  ''It  is  by 
the  God  within  that  w^e  can  understand  the 
God  without."     The  Bible  assures  man  that  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS  3 

things  he  does  not  know  now  he  sliall  know 
hereafter ;  and  this  hereafter  is  not  always  and 
necessarily  a  futnre  state  of  existence.  Science 
declares  that  what  he  does  not  know  now  he 
may  know  hereafter.  We  live  on  an  island 
called  Earth.  AVe  are  conscious  of  ourselves 
and  of  our  surroundhigs ;  but  we  know  only  in 
part,  for  we  have  not  yet  explored  the  whole  of 
our  island.  We  are  not  yet  masters  of  the 
world  within  or  of  the  world  without.  The 
telescope  and  the  spectroscope  enable  us  to 
land  some  of  the  driftwood  that  floats  to  us 
from  the  other  islands,  called  worlds,  in  this  in- 
finite sea ;  and  we  refuse  to  believe  that  this  is 
all  that  we  are  to  have,  and  all  that  we  are  to 
know.  The  story  of  the  past  echoes  our  heart- 
cry  for  more  light.  It  tells  of  secret  after  se- 
cret unfolded.  Subjective  knowledge  has  not 
made  as  much  progress  as  has  objective  knowl- 
edge. 

The  theories  Jibout,  and  the  definitions  of, 
consciousness  that  have  been  advanced  by  mor- 
alists and  metaphysicians,  may  be  regarded  as 
being  not  antagonistic  to  each  other,  but  rather 
as  supplementary  to  each  other.  Locke  sa3^s 
that  complex  ideas  can  be  resolved  into  simple 


4  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

ideas ;  and  that  simple  ideas  come  to  us  through 
sense  perception ;  that  is,  by  the  gateway  of  the 
physical  senses.  This  is  sensation.  The  second 
factor  to  the  production  of  an  idea  is  reflection. 
But  reflection  is  anotlier  name  for  consciousness. 
In  many  things  Locke  is  more  orthodox  than  he 
knew  himself  to  be,  or  than  he  intended  to  be. 
He  exalts  sense  perception,  but  he  has  done 
good  in  calling  attention  to  the  relation  of  the 
physical  senses  to  ideas.  Cousin  says,  "  Con- 
sciousness is  composed  of  three  inseparable  ele- 
ments ;  viz.,  sensibility,  or  sense  perception ; 
activity,  or  liberty ;  and  reason.  The  middle 
element,  activity  or  liberty,  is  a  sort  of  postu- 
late between  sensibility  and  reason."  The  sen- 
sibility and  reason  of  Cousin  are  the  sensation 
and  reflection  of  Locke.  Descartes'  famous 
"  Cogito,  ergo  su7n  "  is  the  reason  of  Cousin  and 
the  reflection  of  Locke.  The  primary  data  of 
consciousness,  accordincr  to  Sir  William  Ham- 
ilton,  are  truths  of  perception  and  truths  of 
reason.  He  is  a  realist,  and  exalts  the  dictates 
of  consciousness.  We  do  not,  however,  assert 
that  idealists  belittle  the  commanding  power 
of  consciousness.  In  the  words  of  McCosh, 
''  We  know  self  as  having  behig,  existence.     The 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS  5 

knowledge  we  have  in  self-consciousness,  Avliich 
is  associated  with  every  intelligxMit  act,  is  not 
an  impression,  as  Hume  would  say,  nor  a  mere 
quality  or  attribute,  as  certain  of  the  Scottisli 
metaphysicians  affirm,  nor  a  phenomenon  in 
the  sense  of  appearance,  as  Kant  supposes,  but 
of  a  thing  or  reality."  Kant  affirms  that  space 
and  time  are  the  forms  given  by  the  mind  to 
the  phenomena  which  are  presented  through 
the  senses,  and  are  not  to  be  supposed  as  hav- 
ing anything  more  than  a  subjective  existence. 
McCosh  holds  tliis  to  be  a  fatal  heresy,  and 
opposed  to  the  revelations  of  consciousness. 
In  his  well-known  chapter  on  the  "  Ph3'siology 
of  Laughter,"  Herbert  Spencer  says,  "  There  is 
still  another  direction  in  which  any  excited  por- 
tion of  the  nervous  system  may  discharge  itself; 
and  a  direction  in  Aviiich  it  usually  does  dis- 
charge itself  when  the  excitement  is  not  strong. 
It  may  pass  on  the  stimulus  to  some  other  por- 
tion of  the  nervous  system.  Tliis  is  what  occurs 
in  cjuiet  thinking  and  feeling.  The  successive 
states  Avhich  constitute  consciousness  result 
from  this.  .  .  .  While  we  are  totally  unable 
to  comprehend  how  tlie  excitement  of  certain 
nerves  should  generate  feeling,  —  while,  in  the 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

production  of  consciousness  by  physical  agents 
acting  on  })liysical  structure,  we  come  to  an 
absolute  mystery,  never  to  be  solved,  it  is  yet 
quite  possible  for  us  to  know  by  observation 
Avhat  are  tlie  successive  forms  which  this  abso- 
lute mystery  may  take."  Tliis  is  materialism 
pure  and  simple. 

A  certain  amount  of  confusion  arises  from 
permitting  ourselves  to  get  into  a  habit  of  in- 
definite thinkinor  about  instinct,  intuition,  and 
consciousness.  An  instinct  is  a  faculty  inde- 
pendent of  instruction  and  prior  to  experience. 
When  we  use  such  expressions  as  "  instinctive 
reverence,"  "instinctive  worship,"  our  Avords 
are  meaningless,  except  in  so  far  as  they  are 
misleading.  The  errors  of  the  pulpit  in  the 
use  of  the  Avords  instinct  and  instinctive  are 
many  and  A^arious.  An  intuition  is  a  self- 
evident,  necessary,  and  universal  trutli.  It  is 
not  mere  insight,  nor  is  it  illumination,  Avhether 
sacred  or  secular.  It  is  not  inspiration,  Avhich 
is  the  gift  of  infallibility  in  proclaiming  moral 
and  religious  truth.  It  is  not  illumination, 
Avhich  is  the  gloAV  and  white  heat  \vith  Avhicli 
light  comes  to  our  minds.  Inspiration  may 
produce  this  intellectual  gloAv ;  but  it  may  and 


THE  CUEISTIAK  CONSCIOUSNESS  7 

usually  does  come  a^  the  result  of  ratiocination, 
or  of  memory,  or  of  unconscious  cerebration 
and  association  of  ideas.  The  intuitions  of 
the  mind  are  not  before  consciousness,  nor  are 
they  identical,  with  consciousness,  or  parallel 
witli  it,  but  rather  should  we  say  that  our  in- 
tuitions are  sup[)lied  by  the  exercise  of  con- 
sciousness and  memory.  We  have  the  fruits 
and  results  of  metaphysics,  but  the  question  is 
as  to  origin  rather  than  as  to  mode.  It  is  not 
a  priori  or  a  posteriori^  realist  or  idealist,  de- 
ductive or  inductive  ;  for  to-day  the  query  is 
is  not.  What  is  consciousness  ?  but,  Whence  is 
it?  Is  our  conception  materialistic  or  theistic? 
Sir  William  Hamilton  declares  that  "  no  dif- 
ficulty emerges  in  theology  which  had  not 
previously  emerged  in  philosophy."  It  is  im- 
possible to  conceive  of  the  Christian  or  religious 
consciousness  which  is  not  of  theistic  origin. ^ 

1  Many  writers,  while  not  expressing  themselves  very  defi- 
nitely, seem  to  imply  that  the  religious  consciousness  is  quite 
possible  in  any  form  of  belief.  Livingstone  in  his  last  journal 
remarks  that  he  never  had  met  with  an  African  chief  whom 
he  could  not  make  ashamed  of  selling  his  own  people  into 
slavery,  but  arousing  the  conscience  is  not  the  creating  of  reli- 
gious consciousness.  It  must  always  be  a  question  as  to  how 
near  the  theistic  conception  the  more  thoughtful  heathen  are, 
while  within  the  borders  of  civilization  we  may  grant  the  per- 
sonal honesty  of  non-theists,  who  may  call  themselves  agnostics, 


8  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

In  the  use  of  the  terms  "  Christian  Conscious- 
ness "  and  "religious  consciousness"  as  inter- 
changeable, it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  while 
practically  no  confusion  of  thought  results,  the 
terms  are  not  synonymous.  All  Christian  con- 
sciousness is  religious  consciousness ;  but  all 
religious  consciousness  is  not,  therefore.  Chris- 
tian consciousness.  The  Buddhist  and  Mo- 
hammedan have  a  religious  consciousness  which 
is  not  Christian.  The  Christian  consciousness 
differs  from  theirs  not  only  in  degree,  but  also 
in  kind.  What  is  Christian  consciousness? 
This  question  h:is  had  many  answers.  Dean 
Mansell,  in  liis  Bampton  Lectures  entitled  the 
"Limits  of  Religious  Thouglit,"  reasons  from 
the  general  conditions  of  all  human  conscious- 
ness that  there  is  a  necessary  limitation  to  its 
powers,  and  tlierefore  an  inability  to  conceive 
tlie  Infinite.  His  conditions  of  consciousness 
are :  — 

(1)  Distinction  between  one  object  and  an- 
otlier. 

(2)  Relation  between  subject  and  object. 


or  materialists,  or  atheists,  and  yet  refuse  to  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  their  being  able  to  free  themselves  from  the 
theistic  conception. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS  9 

(3)  Succession  and  duration  in  time. 

(4)  Personality. 

He  holds  that  the  religions  consciousness  is 
reflective  and  intuitive.  The  reasonino-s  of  the 
reflective  consciousness  are  sufficient  to  correct 
our  conception  of  a  supreme  being,  but  not 
sufficient  to  originate  such  a  conception.  The 
other  part  of  consciousness  —  religious  intui- 
tion —  manifests  itself  in  the  feeline  of  de- 
pendence,  and  in  the  conviction  of  moral 
obligation.  These  two  conditions  beget  praj^er 
and  expiation.  Dependence  ini[)lies  a  personal 
superior,  hence  our  conviction  of  the  power  of 
God.  Moral  obligation  implies  a  moral  law- 
giver, hence  our  conviction  of  the  goodness  of 
God.  His  limits  of  religious  consciousness 
are :  — 

(1)  That  a  sense  of  dependence  is  not  a 
consciousness  of  the  absolute  and  the  infinite. 

(2)  Nor  is  a  sense  of  moral  obligation  a 
consciousness  of  the  absolute  and  the  infinite. 

(3)  Religious  consciousness  implies  the  in- 
finite. 

(4)  God  is  known  as  a  person  through  the 
consciousness  of  ourselves  as  persons.  There 
can    be    no    philosophical   theism    witliout    this 


10  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

consciousness.  The  materialist  or  the  pan- 
theist who  denies  his  own  personality  is  on  the 
straight  road  to  atheism. 

Fifteen  years  after  Dean  Mansell's  book  was 
published,  the  Rev.  William  F.  Warren,  D.D., 
Dean  of  the  Boston  University  School  of  The- 
ology, delivered  one  of  the  Boston  lectures  on 
"  Christianity  and  Scepticism."  His  theme  was 
"  The  Christian  Consciousness  :  its  apologetic 
value."     His  position  is  :  — 

(1)  Every  man  has  some  sort  of  religious 
consciousness,  e.g.,  theistic,  pantheistic,  poly- 
theistic, atheistic. 

There  are  sub-types  of  religious  conscious- 
ness,  e.g.,    Jewish,  Christian,  Mohammedan. 

His  leading  traits  of  the  ideal  Christian  con- 
sciousness are  :  — 

(1)  An  immediate  knowledge  or  feeling  or 
realization  of  some  kind  of  personal  communion 
with  God.  He  subdivides  into  the  GUI  Testa- 
ment religions  or  God-consciousness,  the  ordi- 
nar}^  Christian  consciousness,  and  the  higher- 
life  Christian  consciousness.  The  apologetic 
value  of  the  Christian  consciousness  over  the 
atheistic,  polytheistic,  and  pantheistic  is,  that 
the    votaries    of    these    last   three   believe,    but 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS         11 

the  Christian  knows.  He  holds  that  in  the 
narrower  field  of  controversy,  where  theistic 
naturalism  and  supranaturalism  grapple,  the 
facts  of  normal  Christian  consciousness  forever 
settle,  for  its  possessor,  every  speculative  doubf' 
and  difhculty  —  that  miracles  and  incarnation 
are  easily  grasped  by  Christian  consciousness. 

Professor  Candlish,  of  the  Free  Church  Col- 
lege, Glasgow,  wrote  the  article  "  Dogmatic  "  in 
the  ninth  edition  of  the  "  Encyclopsedia  Britan- 
nica,"  since  published  in  fuller  shape  in  book 
form.  He  says,  "  The  inward  spiritual  enlight- 
enment of  the  believer  corresponds  very  nearly 
to  wdiat  has  been  called  Christian  conscious- 
ness." He  ascribes  the  phrase  to  Schleier- 
macher,  whose  fundamental  principle  w^as  that 
religion  consists  properly  in  feeling,  and  that 
we  have  an  immediate  consciousness  of  the 
divine  —  a  God-consciousness.  This  Mansell 
denies.  It  will  be  found  that  the  truth  lies 
between  the  sensationalism  of  Schleiermacher 
and  the  intellectualism  against  Avhich  he  re- 
volted ;  but  the  difficulty  is  to  find  a  meeting- 
place  for  sensationalism  and  intellectualism 
which  will  be  satisfactory  to  both. 

Professer  Kaftan  divides  with  Professor  Har- 


12  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

nack  the  honors  of  brilliance  and  popularity 
in  the  University  of  Berlin.  He  brings  en- 
thusiasm and  spirituality  to  his  work.  He  is 
the  most  distinguished  advocate  of  the  Ritsch- 
lian  school  of  theology,  the  avowed  object  of 
which  is  to  reconcile  supranaturalism  and  ra- 
tionalism. The  task  which  this  school  has  as- 
signed itself  does  not  seem  as  difficult  of 
accomplishment  as  it  did  twenty  years  ago. 
With  Schleiermacher  they  assert  that  the  reli- 
gious consciousness  is  the  fountain  of  belief. 
They  antagonize  metaphysical  statement  of  doc- 
trine, and  exalt  the  moral  side  of  life  and 
religion.  While  the}"  maintain  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  are  the  final  and  supreme  autliority  in 
doctrine,  because  in  them  we  have  the  Christian 
consciousness  in  its  primitive  purity,  they  are 
not  orthodox  on  the  question  of  inspiration. 

This  most  popular  school  of  religious  thought 
in  Germany  of  to-day  has  many  attractive  fea- 
tures ;  and  it  is  certain,  in  the  near  future,  to 
exercise  wide  influence  in  America.  Religious 
consciousness  as  taught  in  German}^  to-day  ex- 
alts the  subjective  determination  of  trutli,  and 
in  this  lies  its  danger.  The  counterfeits  of 
Christian    consciousness    will  prove   as  danger- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS         13 

ous  as  the  exaofo-erations  of  it,  or  the  io-norino- 
of  it.  Like  every  real  thing,  it  lias  to  be 
sifted  and  tried,  for  it  cannot  be  ignored. 
.  Religious  consciousness  is  consciousness  plus 
the  theistic  conception ;  and  Christian  con- 
sciousness is  religious  conscionsness  with  cer- 
tain notable  additions.     These  are  :  — 

(1)  What  we  know  of  our  faitli  and  of  our 
feelings  in  the  light  of  the  revealed  Word. 

(2)  What  we  know  of  our  will  to  do  God's 
will. 

(3)  What  we  know  of  the  promised  result 
of  this  willing  to  do  God's  will. 

(4)  What  we  know  of  being  led  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  into  truth. 

(5)  What  we  know  of  the  witness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  with  our  spirits  as  to  our  divine 
sonship. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  supreme  author- 
ity in  doctrine  and  in  life.  We  do  not  claim, 
like  the  German  school  to  Avhich  reference  has 
been  made,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  in  a 
sense  subordinate  to  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness; nor  need  we,  like  Professor  Candlish, 
maintain  that  the  Christian  consciousness  is  a 
subordinate   authority.     It  is  a  co-ordinate  au- 


14  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

thority.  It  is  the  illumined  Word.  It  is  not 
a  primary  and  independent  source  of  authority, 
but  it  takes  the  initiative  in  all  change. 
Throuo-h  it  the  ne^y  lio'ht  from  the  Word  of 
God  flashes  forth.  We  do  not  assert  that  the 
Christian  consciousness  is  necessarily  and 
always  unerriug. 

The  Papal  claim  of  infallibility  is  not  based 
on  the  Christian  consciousness.  There  is  no 
question  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  outgrowing  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
It  is  as  reasonable  to  speak  of  outgrowing  the 
multiplication  table  as  of  outgrowing  the  Deca- 
lop-ue  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  We 
make  mistakes  in  our  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures.  We  make  mistakes  in  our  inter- 
pretation of  the  Christian  consciousness.  A 
mistake  in  dogma  is  an  error  ;  persistent  error 
becomes  the  sin  of  heresy.  A  mistake  of  a 
moral  kind  is  also  an  error.  But  the  error  of 
to-day  often   becomes  the  sin  of  the  future. 

God  is  immanent  in  mind  and  in  matter. 
Man  has  a  conscience.  In  that  conscience, 
by  God's  immanence  in  mind,  a  moral  law  is 
revealed.  A  moral  law  leads  naturally  to  the 
law-maker,  the  law-keeper,  and  the  law-breaker. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS         15 

The  Word  of  God  reveuLs  the  hiw-niaker 
and  the  moral  law.  God's  manifestation  of  him- 
self in  Christ  illumines  the  sacred  Word.  Con- 
sciousness becomes  Christian  consciousness.  It 
proves  all  things,  and  holds  fast  to  that  which 
is  good.  It  has  certain  imperative  categories 
whicli  are  its  touchstones. 

(i)    What  does  the  Word  of  God  say? 

(2)  Is  this  or  is  it  not  the  letter  that  kills  ? 

(3)  What  is  tlie  spirit  of  it  ? 

(4)  In  what  way  can  moral  certitude  be 
attained  ? 

(5)  That  is  —  How  shall  I  know  that  the 
Spirit  of  truth  is  witnessing  with  my  spirit  ? 

(6)  Shall  not  this  be  brought  to  the  test  of 
reason  ? 

(7)  Shall  not  the  final  appeal  be  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  ? 

It  is  self-evident  that  we  cannot  get  from  the 
Word  of  God  that  which  is  not  in  it ;  but  there 
are  treasures  in  it,  both  new  and  old.  Our 
Lord  tells  us  to  search  the  Scriptures.  The 
man  who  imaq-ines  that  his  Christian  conscious- 
ness  is  to  be  the  result  of  a  miracle  of  grace, 
without  effort  on  his  part,  is  on  the  high  road 
to   fanaticism.      ''  He    tliat  wills    to    do    God's 


16  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

will  shall  know  the  doctrine."  ^  Obedience  to 
the  divine  Avill  brings  certitude  to  the  soul  with 
regard  to  moral  trutli.  A  single-hearted  desire 
to  please  God  illumines  every  question  of  a  re- 
ligious nature.  Looked  at  from  the  standpoint 
of  human  philosophy,  this  is  a  most  astounding 
assertion  that  Christ  makes.  When  he  uttered 
those  words,  earth  listened  to  a  new  truth.  He 
does  not  say,  '•  If  any  man  wills  to  do  his  will, 
he  shall  know  that  the  teaching  is  wise  or  good 
or  of  superior  excellence."  Such  statements  as 
these  are  made  every  day.  When  any  law  or 
business  scheme  or  system  of  government  is 
presented  to  the  individual  or  to  the  commu- 
nity, we  examine  it  in  the  light  of  past  expe- 
rience, and  of  recognized  laws  and  general 
principles,  and  come  to  a  conclusion  as  to 
whether  we  should  accept  or  reject  this  thing. 
Sometimes  the  result  proves  that  we  make  a 
mistake.  We  are  overpersuaded  by  the  inge- 
nious advocacy,  or  promoters  and  adopters  of 
this  new  departure  were  equally  mistaken. 

When  there  is  great  conflict  of  opinion  as  to 
the  advantage  of  this  new  thing,  the  plea 
usually  is  to  give  it  a  fair  and  pi-actical  trial, 

1  John  vii.17. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS         17 

and  by  so  doing  demonstrate  on  which  side  the 
sound  reasoning  is.  The  political  economy  of 
our  own  and  other  countries  is  a  practical  illus- 
tration of  this  law  in  its  workino-.  Tliat  our 
putting  the  Scripture  code  into  practice  should 
convince  us  that  it  is  very  excellent,  and  suited 
to  mankind,  need  excite  no  surprise.  From  the 
standpoint  of  secular  histor}^  Mosaic  law  is 
as  worthy  of  study  as  is  Roman  or  Greek  law. 
One  of  the  wonders  of  history  is,  that  while 
Rome  was  in  the  zenith  of  her  glory,  and  Pal- 
estine was  but  a  fragment  of  her  vast  domin- 
ions, the  future  of  earth  was  being  moulded, 
not  in  the  imperial  city,  but  by  a  peasant  of 
that  insignificant  province.  In  view  of  the  his- 
torical antecedents,  there  is  nothing  Avonderful 
in  the  man  or  the  community  that  models  its 
life  after  the  Bible  pattern,  finding  that  the 
legislation  is  a  model  of  wisdom  and  of  benefi- 
cence. But  our  Lord  did  not  say  that  he  who 
did  the  will  of  God  was  to  find  out  that  the 
teaching  was  wise  or  good,  but  that  he  was  to 
know  that  the  teaching  came  from  God.  This 
discovery  of  the  supernatural  origin  of  the 
Word,  this  higher  evidence  of  the  authenticity 
of    Scripture,    is    the   wonderful    thing  in    this 


18  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

statement  of  our  Lord's.  He  does  not  teach 
that  the  mere  performance  of  the  things  com- 
manded Avill  produce  this  result;  but  lie  does 
teach  that  if  a  man's  heart  he  set  on  doing  the 
will  of  God,  this  supranatural  divine  illumina- 
tion comes.  This  divine  illumination  is  the 
miracle  of  grace.  It  is  a  part,  but  not  the 
whole,  of  the  Christian  consciousness.  It  has 
been  much  neglected  by  the  individual  Chris- 
tian, and  has  been  almost  always  practically 
ignored  by  the  church ;  but  it  rises  above  faith. 
Faith  gives  us  certainty  where  reason  may  fail 
us  ;  but  the  Christian  consciousness  turns  faith 
into  sight.  He  does  not  believe  that  the  Word 
is  from  God.     He  knows  it. 

By  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the 
Scriptures  must  the  Word  stand  or  fall  in  the 
presence  of  that  criticism  which  will  not  ac- 
knowledge the  function  of  faith  or  of  Christian 
consciousness.  On  such  unbelievers  we  can 
still  bring  to  bear  the  external  and  internal 
evidence  in  favor  of  inspiration.  The  external 
evidence  can  prove  that  almost  all  our  New 
Testament  was  produced  by  the  age  to  which  it 
professes  to  belong ;  that  for  the  most  part  it  is 
the  word  of  the  livino^  witness,  and  not  the  com- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS^        19 

pilation  of  dim  tradition.  But  external  evidence 
by  itself  can  never  be  proof  positive  of  the 
divine  origin  of  the  Bible.  The  internal  evi- 
dence Avill  satisfy  certain  types  of  mind  as  a 
sufficient  proof  of  the  superhuman  origin  of  the 
Bible;  and  the  external  and  internal  evidence 
combined  will  to  many  minds  be  a  satisfactory 
proof  of  inspiration.  But  this  mode  of  proof  is 
confined  to  the  scliolarly  iew.  Our  Loi'd  does 
not  limit  his  promise  to  any  select  group.  He 
does  not  say,  if  any  man  wills  to  do  his  will, 
and  then  pursues  a  certain  course  of  study,  but 
if  any  man  wills.  The  offer  of  illumination  is 
as  wdde  as  is  tlie  offer  of  salvation.  Two  per- 
ennial miracles  live  3^et  in  the  church  of  God. 
The  assurance  of  salvation  —  of  personal  salva- 
tion —  is  the  miracle  of  peace  ;  and  the  certainty 
that  God  is  speaking  to  us  in  his  Book  is  the 
miracle  of  knowledge. 

The  keynote  of  the  Reformation  was  faith. 
''  The  just  shall  live  by  faith."  Faith  versus 
works,  and  faith  versus  morality,  was  the  great 
theme  of  the  pulpits  of  Protestantism  for  a  cen- 
tury after  the  Reformation.  The  legend  of 
Rome  was,  "  Do  this  and  live ;  "  the  legend  of 
Protestantism  was,  ''  Believe  and  live."     It  was 


20  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

natural  and  to  be  expected ;  but  definite  teach- 
ing concerning  the  knowledge  of  God,  and 
what  it  is  to  know  God,  was  conspicuously 
absent.  The  Confession  of  Faith,  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,  and  the  Catechism  unite  in  hav- 
ing very  little  to  say  on  this  head.  Knowledge 
was  confused  with  and  identified  with  faith. 
In  the  Shorter  Catechism  of  the  Westminster 
divines  occurs  the  question.  What  is  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ?  It  is  a  fundamental  question, 
and  the  answer  to  it  is  as  nearly  perfect  as  Ave 
can  imagine  uninspired  language  to  be  ;  but 
alongside  of  it  should  have  been  such  a  ques- 
tion as.  What  is  the  knowledge  of  God?  How 
man}^  sermons  in  Protestant  pulpits  have  been 
preached  from  Isa.  viii.  2 :  ''  By  his  knowledge 
shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  many."  Jesus 
himself  said  tliat  it  was  life  eternal  to  know 
God.  Christian  consciousness  has  been  ob- 
scured, because  life-giving  knowledge  has  been 
neglected  or  identified  with  faith,  or  treated  as 
the  synonym  of  information,  and  nothing  more. 
What  is  the  province  of  Christian  conscious- 
ness ?  It  does  not  debate.  It  begins  with  "  I 
know."  Such  questions  as  the  mode  of  baptism 
and  apostolic  succession  are  in  the  field  of  rati- 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS         21 

ocination,  not  iii  the  field  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Knowledge,  and  tlie  processes  of 
knowledge,  in  so  far  as  the  will  and  mind  of 
God  can  be  found  in  us,  is  the  field  given  to  us. 
God  gives  wisdom  liberally,  and  does  not  scorn 
us  for  our  need  of  it.  This  is  not  the  talent 
which  we  must  occupy,  but  it  is  the  gift  that 
occupies  us.  It  is  a  constituent  element  of  our 
Christian  consciousness. 

Christ  is  with  his  church  always,  to  the  end 
of  the  age,  but  only  in  so  far  as  he  is  in  the 
hearts  of  some  or  all  of  its  members.  Faith 
moves  mountains,  but  Christian  consciousness 
knows  that  this  mountain  is  in  God's  way. 
Christian  consciousness  draws  the  people  of 
God  together  in  spite  of  the  very  definite  rea- 
sons which  they  have  for  keeping  apart  from 
each  other. 

Man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  By  his 
fall  he  lost  communion  with  God,  but  he  did 
not  lose  the  likeness.  It  has  not  yet  been  dem- 
onstrated tliat  any  man  is  wholly  devoid  of 
the  relicifious  consciousness.  Tliis  is  at  once 
a  more  scientific  and  a  more  satisfactory  ex- 
pression than  the  "  light  of  nature."  May  not 
the    salvation    of    the    heathen    be    determined 


22  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

more  by  the  God  consciousness  that  is  in  him 
than  by  any  reasoning  that  he  has  been  able 
to  do  "  from  nature  up  to  nature's  God  "  ?  It  is 
the  religious  consciousness,  and  not  speculations 
concerning  the  attributes  and  the  works  of  God, 
that  must  enable  a  man  to  escape  judgment  by 
judging  himself.  There  are  certain  moral  and 
ethical  standards  into  which  man  has  entered 
by  the  processes  of  reason ;  but  there  are  moral 
and  ethical  dogmas  which  have  come,  as  it 
were,  ont  of  a  clear  sky.  Spontaneous  genera- 
tion in  morals  or  ethics  is  as  nnthinkable  as  is 
spontaneous  generation  in  matter;  but  the 
consideration  of  this  topic,  and  its  relation  to 
consciousness,  will  come  under  the  head  of  evo- 
lution in  morals.  It  cannot  be  too  deeply 
impressed  upon  our  minds  that  there  is  no  ne- 
cessary conflict  between  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture and  the  religious  consciousness.  On  the 
contrary,  that  German  school  to  which  reference 
has  been  already  made,  after  drifting  from  the 
orthodox  view  of  inspiration,  has  found  the 
Avay  back  to  reverence  for  the  Word  by  their 
Christian  consciousness.  In  one  of  the  best 
of  our  religious  Aveekly  newspapers,  which  need 
not  be  named,  an  article  appeared  on  the  Chris- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS         23 

tian  consciousness,  in  which  it  was  cliarged 
with  being  an  excuse  for  heresy,  and  with  being 
the  ally  of  the  higher  criticism.  Sucli  an  utter 
misapprehension  of  the  nature  and  province  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  can  scarcely  be  im- 
agined. So  far,  it  has  counteracted  the  evil  ef- 
fects of  what  we  may  call  heresy.  The  higlier 
criticism  is  a  detail  of  scholarship,  and  it  lias 
neither  more  nor  less  connection  or  afiiliation 
with  the  Christian  consciousness  than  any  other 
department  of  scholarship  has. 

There  is  a  trinity  of  illumination,  —  the 
light  of  revelation,  the  light  of  the  religious 
consciousness,  and  the  light  of  nature.  God 
is  the  creator,  the  Holy  Spirit  tlie  inspirer,  and 
Christ  in  us  the  revealer.  In  the  past  the 
cliurch  has  been  undigniiied,  timid,  and  apolo- 
getic when  charged  by  her  enemies  with  lier 
changes  of  front  on  questions  of  ethics,  of 
morals,  and  of  interpretation.  The  right  con- 
ception of  tlie  Christian  consciousness  should 
make  the  church  glory  in  her  changing,  in  her 
development,  and  in  her  elasticity.  Those 
philosophers  who  are  not  inclined  to  introduce 
any  theological  or  supranatural  element  into 
their    conceptions  of  man's  moral   and  ethical 


24  THE  CIIBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

development  liave  an  ideal  Avliicli  they  worsliip 
after  a  fashion.  Tliey  maintain  that  the  good 
deeds  and  the  good  thoughts  of  men  have  come 
from  their  aspirations  after  an  ideal.  We 
accept  it  all  and  go  farther.  Our  ideal  has 
become  real  to  us  in  Christ.  He  is  not  only 
our  hero  and  example  and  leader,  but  we  liave 
a  consciousness  of  him.  He  is  found  in  us, 
and  we  are  found  in  him. 

It  is  significant  that,  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, when  the  pulpit  contented  itself  with 
preacliing  moral  essays,  the  majority  of  the 
philosophers  of  the  same  century  Avere  deter- 
mined tliat  theology  should  not  liave  any  place 
in  their  systems  of  moral  philosophy.  Locke, 
Shaftesbury,  Hobbes,  Hume,  Bentham,  and  Kant 
are  all  at  one  in  this  respect;  and  it  was  almost 
the  only  point  on  which  they  were  agreed. 
They  had  a  very  imperfect  conception  of  reli- 
gion, and  for  this  the  then  current  religious 
teaching  was  responsible.  It  was  a  cold,  formal 
externalism.  It  had  no  inner  life.  There  was 
no  Christian  consciousness.  There  was  a  God 
in  heaven,  whose  business  it  w\as  to  deal  out 
rewards  and  punishments  in  a  fatherly  or  in 
a  vindictive  fashion,  as  the  preacher  lia2323ened 


THE  CURISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS         25 

to  feel;  but  the  yearning-  love  of  God  for  num 
and  man's  apprehension  of  God,  were  obscured. 
Hume's  utilitarianism,  or  Bentham's  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number,  or  Kant's  impera- 
tive, was  really  a  better  scheme  of  the  moral 
world  than  was  the  Dryasdust  formalism  of 
the  church,  in  whicli  there  was  no  Christian 
consciousness,  and  very  little  of  Christ  as  Jesus 
the  Messiah. 


26  THE  CUBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   DIGNITY   OF   MAN 

The  growth  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
was  retarded  from  the  fact  that  it  phaced 
dignity  on  man  as  the  cliild  of  God.  The  Ref- 
ormation theology  had  a  tendency  to  an  aus- 
terity which  gave  undue  prominence  to  one 
side  of  the  truth.  That  Adam  fell  from  the 
estate  wdierein  he  was  created  by  eating  the 
forbidden  fruit ;  that  all  mankind,  descended 
from  him  by  ordinary  generation,  sinned  m 
him  and  fell  with  him  in  his  first  transgression  ; 
that  the  sinfulness  of  our  estate  consists  in 
the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin,  in  the  want  of 
original  righteousness,  in  the  corru23tion  of  our 
whole  nature,  together  with  all  actual  trans- 
gressions which  proceed  from  it;  that  no 
mere  man  since  the  fall  is  able  perfectly  to 
keep  the  commandments  of  God,  but  doth 
daily  break  them  in  thought,  word,  and  deed; 
that  every  sin  deserves  God's  wrath  and 
curse,  both  in  this  life  and  in  that  which  is  to 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  27 

come,  —  may  all  be  doctriiially  sound,  and  may 
be  supported  by  proof  texts  ;  but  it  is  a  little 
depressing,  and  it  gives  humanity  the  gloomiest 
possible  view  of  itself.  Nor  is  the  gloom  dis- 
pelled by  the  unfolding  of  tlie  plan  of  redemp- 
tion ;  for,  while  our  soul  shrinks  at  the  universal 
loss  and  ruin,  we  are  told  that  God,  ''  having  out 
of  his  mere  good  pleasure,  from  all  eternity, 
elected  so7ne  to  everlasting  life,  did  enter  into 
a  covenant  of  grace  to  deliver  them  out  of 
their  estate  of  sin  and  misery,  and  to  bring  them 
into  -  an  estate  of  salvation  by  a  redeemer." 
It  is  a  depressing  view  of  the  truth,  and  it 
led  to  a  conventional  habit  of  self-depreciation 
that  was  not  always  sincere.  The  Penitential 
Psalm  fits  the  case  of  the  adulterer  and  mur- 
derer, and  is  an  appropriate  hymn  for  tlie 
condemned  cell  on  the  morning  of  an  execu- 
tion ;  but  it  may  be  used  in  a  morbid  fashion. 
It  is  true  that  in  these  days  there  is  a  tendency 
to  the  other  extreme,  and  the  "  only  believe," 
"  trust  him,"  "  take  him,"  of  certain  phases  of 
revivalism,  but  not  of  all  evangelists,  ignore 
repentance  unto  life,  and  belittle  restitution ; 
but  the  older  setting  and  statement  of  the  truth 
belittled  man.    Granting  that  it  is  technically 


28  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

correct  to  say  that  all  mankind  by  the  fall 
lost  communion  with  God,  are  under  his  wrath 
and  curse,  and  so  made  liable  to  all  the  miseries 
of  this  life,  to  death  itself,  and  to  the  pains  of 
hell  forever  —  it  is,  after  all,  only  a  half-truth. 
If  man  lost  the  Adamic  communion,  it  was  to 
find  the  Christ  communion.  If  he  is  under 
God's  wrath  and  curse,  he  is  also  under  his 
love  and  mercy.  If  he  is  made  liable  to  all 
the  miseries  of  this  life,  he  rejoices  in  hope. 
If  he  must  encounter  the  pains  of  death,  he  also 
exultingly  cries,  "  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  " 
If  the  pains  of  hell  forever  and  forever  lie 
before  persistent  choosing  of  evil  rather  than 
of  good,  he  knows  that  full  and  free  salvation 
is  offered  to  him ;  and  in  his  inmost  soul  he 
knows  that  the  guilt  of  rejection  must  be  his 
own  guilt,  and  that  no  divine  decree,  no  iron 
necessity  in  the  nature  of  things,  will  prevent 
his  attainment  of  everlasting  felicity. 

A  departure  from  the  right  proportion  and 
perspective  of  truth  has  all  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  error.  Lecky,  in  his  "History  of 
European  Morals,"  says,  "  But  these  exaggera- 
tions of  human  depravity,  which  have  attained 
their  extreme  limits  in  some  Protestant  sects, 


THE  DIGNITY   OF  MAN  29 

do  not  appear  in  the  church  of  the  first  three 
centuries.  The  sense  of  sin  was  not  yet  accom- 
panied by  a  denial  of  the  goodness  that  exists 
in  man.  Christianity  was  regarded  rather  as 
a  redemption  from  error  than  from  sin ;  and  it 
is  a  significant  fact  that  the  epithet  'well 
deserving,'  whicli  the  pagans  usually  put  upon 
their  tombs,  was  also  the  favorite  inscription 
in  the  Christian  catacombs.  The  Pelagian  con- 
troversy, the  teachings  of  St.  Augustine,  and 
the  progress  of  asceticism,  gradually  introduced 
the  doctrine  of  the  utter  depravity  of  man, 
which  has  proved  in  later  times  the  fertile 
source  of  degrading  superstition." 

The  Eighth  Psalm  is  an  exulting  chant,  and 
its  theme  is  the  excellence  of  God  as  mani- 
fested in  the  greatness  of  man.  The  central 
thought,  so  far  as  the  greatness  of  man  is  con- 
cerned, is  the  fifth  verse  :  "  For  thou  hast  made 
him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  hast 
crowned  him  with  glory  and  honor."  The 
false  translation  of  our  Authorized  Versioi  of 
this  verse  did  injury  to  the  truth,  not  only  by 
its  own  error,  but  also  by  affecting  our  attitude 
to  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  man.  The 
Revised  Version  makes  a  very  striking  change : 


30  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

"For  thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than 
God."  How  comes  so  radical  a  change  ?  The 
original  word  Elolmn  is  the  plural  form  of  the 
word  for  God.  The  plural  is  by  far  the  more 
common  form  of  the  word.  It  is  the  form  used 
in  tlie  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  in  the  Dec- 
alogue. It  means  god,  gods,  objects  of  wor- 
ship. This  psalm  is  the  only  case  in  which  the 
word  is  translated  angels.  The  translators  were 
doubtless  inclined  to  this  rendering  by  doc- 
trinal considerations.  It  was  out  of  harmony 
witli  the  prevailing  thought  of  the  age,  and  it 
Avas  in  sharp  contrast  to  those  Scriptures  which 
enlarge  on  the  distance  between  God  and  man. 
The  Authorized  Version  is  unfortunate  in  its 
rendering  of  this  word,  because  the  psalm  sees 
the  glory  of  man  in  his  being  the  lord  of  crea- 
tion; but  angels  are  not  associated  with  any 
dominion  over  this  earth  of  ours.  They  are 
ministering,  not  ruling,  spirits.  iMan,  in  his 
present  earth  life,  may  be  lower  than  the  angels 
Avlio  serve  God,  and  who  are  sent  forth  on  er- 
rands of  "  supernal  grace  ;  "  but  man's  inferior- 
ity to  angels  is  not  taught  in  the  Scriptures. 
In  his  ultimate  destiny  he  will  be  greater,  for 
he  will  be  the  judge  of  angels  (1  Cor.  vi.  3). 


THE  DIGNITY   OF  MAN  31 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  universally  admitted' 
that  it  is  only  in  a  limited  sense  that  we  can  ap- 
2)ropriate  the  being  but  little  lower  tlian  God. 
This   has   been  felt  by   the   gi-eat    majority    of 
expositors.     Hengstenberg  says,   "The  Elolihn 
expresses   the   abstract  idea  of    Godhead."     In 
Zech.  xii.  8,  Eloliim  may  be  regarded  as  identi- 
cal  with,  or  as   parallel   with,  the    "Angel    of 
the  Lord;"   but  m^wj  regard  the  words  as  dis- 
tinct images  of  the  glory  that  was  to  come  to 
the    house    of   David.     The  most  difficult  pas- 
sage, so  far  as  the  use  of  the  word  Elohim  is 
concerned,  is  1  Sam.  xxviii.  13  ;  and  in  this  case 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Revision  changes  "  I 
saw  gods,"  into  "  I  saw  a  god."     Calvin's  com- 
ment is  :   "  Parum  ahesse  sum  jussisti  a  divino  et 
coelesti  statu''  —  hicking  but  little  of  the  divine 
and   heavenl}^,   or   an  almost  super-earthly  dig- 
nity.     Hengstenberg 's    translation    is :    "  Thou 
makest  him   to  want  little   of   a  divine   stand- 
ing."    Oar  Authorized  Version  is  a  literal  trans- 
lation   of    the    Vulgate:    '' Minuisti   eum   paulo 
minus  ah  anrfelisy     This  is  tlie  same  as  the  Sep- 
tuagint.     The  Septuagint  and  the  Vulgate  liad 
a  good  deal  of  weight  with  King  James's  trans- 
lators, for  the  very  sufficient  reason  that  they 


32  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

knew  Latin  and  Greek  much  better  than  they 
knew  Hebrew  ;  but  they  knew  Hebrew  too  well 
to  account  for  this  translation  being  otlier  than 
deliberate  choice  on  their  part.  Luther's  Bible 
was  before  them.  He  translates,  as  our  Revis- 
ion does :  ^'  Du  wirst  ihn  lassen  eine  Heine  Zeit 
von  Gott  verlassen  sein.'^ 

The  reference  in  this  psahn  is  to  certain  spe- 
cial privileges  bestowed  on  man  ;  but  a  broad, 
general  truth  is  also  indicated,  whicli  may  be 
thus  stated.  Man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
This  image  has  been  defaced  or  marred,  not 
lost  or  blotted  out.  It  can  be  restored.  The 
dignity  of  man  is  in  liis  past,  a  divine  origin ; 
in  his  present,  divine  possibilities  ;  and  in  his 
future,  a  divine  destiny.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness contemplates  its  greatness  not  in  any 
vainglorious  fashion,  but  in  reverential  mood. 
It  does  not  ignore  the  revealed  contrasted  little- 
ness of  wliicli  it  is  always  profoundl}^  conscious. 
"  Verily  every  man  at  his  best  estate  is  alto- 
gether vanity  "  (Ps.  xxxix.  5).  "  Man  being 
in  honor  abideth  not :  he  is  like  the  beasts  that 
perish"  (Ps.  xlix.  12,  20).  And  yet  there  is 
a  perfect  man  whom  we  should  study,  and  an 
upright   man    whom   we    should   imitate.      To- 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  33 

day  man  is  saj'ing,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-moiTOw  we  die ; "  but  when  the  to-morrow 
comes,  light  perhaps  has  shined  into  the  gross 
soul,  and  he  cries  that  he  cannot  live  by  bread 
only:  lie  hungers  and  thirsts  for  every  word 
that  proceeds  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  Poets 
and  moralists  like  to  dwell  on  these  contra- 
dictions and  opposites  of  human  nature.  One 
exclaims,  "  How  poor  a  thing  is  man ! "  while 
another  declares  that  "  Man  is  a  pendulum, 
'twixt  a  smile  and  a  tear."  Pascal  says  that 
"  Man  is  at  once  the  glory  and  the  scandal 
of  the  universe."  Shakespeare  had  this  Eighth 
Psalm  in  mind  when  he  wrote,  '*  What  a  piece 
of  work  is  a  man  !  How  noble  in  reason,  how 
infinite  in  faculties  ;  in  form  and  moving,  how 
express  and  admirable;  in  action,  how  like  an 
angel ;  in  apprehension,  how  like  a  god."  God- 
like apprehension  is  Christian  consciousness. 

These  extremes  of  vice  and  virtue,  of  benev- 
olence and  malevolence,  are  peculiar  to  man 
so  far  as  we  know  the  universe.  Heaven  is 
the  home  of  holiness  and  of  every  conceivable 
moral  and  spiritual  excellence.  In  view  of  the 
fall  of  the  angels,  we  dare  not  affirm  that  sin  is 
impossible  to  every  one  of  the  citizens  of  the 


84  THE  CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

kingdom  ;  but  we  know  that  sin  cannot  enter 
into  heaven,  and  it  cannot  stay  there.  We 
associate  the  condition  of  the  lost  with  that 
hardened  impiety  and  continuance  in  sin  which 
we  call  permanence  in  evil.  The  lower  animals 
have  good  or  bad  traits,  dispositions,  tempers, 
and  habits ;  but  we  do  not  attach  any  moral 
merit  or  demerit  to  their  actions. 

Science  searches  in  vain  for  the  missing  links 
which  will  prove  the  ascent  of  the  physical 
man  from  the  manlike  ape  or  from  any  other 
of  the  mammalia.  But  even  were  such  miss- 
ing forms  discovered,  we  must  find  many  other 
links  to  account  for  his  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual development.  Theistic  evolution  demands 
the  existence  of  God,  and  liis  activit}^  in  his 
universe.  But  at  this  point  all  agreement 
ends.  Charles  Kingsley  was  wise  as  well  as 
witty  when  he  said  that  evolution  exalted 
God.  He  did  not  make  all  things,  but  he 
made  them  make  themselves.  Some  theists 
are  contented  to  find  God  at  the  beginning. 
They  reason  that  we  might  be  able  to  find  the 
missing  links  between  man  and  the  ape,  and 
go  back  by  visible  steps  until  we  came  to  the 
simplest  forms  of    animal  life,   to  find  a  trust- 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  31  AN  35 

worthy  bridge  between  the  animal  and  the 
vegetable  kingdoms.  When  we  come  to  the 
lowest  forms  of  organic  life,  let  us  discover  tliat 
spontaneous  generation  Avhich  science  has  looked 
for  in  vain.  Let  the  inorganic  earth  be  simpli- 
fied, resolved  into  its  elements,  nay,  let  them 
disappear.  In  the  infinite  there  float  two 
atoms,  call  them  microscopic  atoms,  molecules 
of  matter,  star-dust,  or  by  any  other  name. 
Who  made  them  ?  Whence  came  they  ?  Who 
endowed  them  with  the  promise  and  potency 
of  the  all  to  come  ?  Who  ordained  that  in  the 
infinite  spaces  these  wandering  parents  of  suns 
and  systems  should  meet?  Who  presided  at 
the  wedlock  that  was  pregnant  with  the  all  to 
come  ?     God. 

It  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  theist  who 
accepts  evolution  of  this  kind  and  degree  may 
stop  short  when  he  reaches  the  summit  of  phys- 
ical life  in  man,  and  say,  "  Thus  far  and  no 
farther."  The  intellectual,  the  moral,  and  the 
spiritual  are  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  evolu- 
tion. The  physical  man  began  with  a  full 
equipment,  moral  and  spiritual,  for  the  battle  of 
life  ;  and  his  intellect,  if  without  the  gathered 
knowledge  of  experience,  was  a  man's  intellect 


36  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  not  a  chilcrs.  But  while  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  the  more  extreme  theistic  evolu- 
tionists may  take  this  position,  as  a  matter  of 
fact  they  accept  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in 
the  region  of  the  intellectual  and  moral.  This 
they  try  to  accomplish  without  irreverence 
and  without  irreligion.  Professor  Drummond's 
"  Ascent  of  Man  ' '  is  an  outstanding  example 
and  illustration,  but  we  do  not  assert  that 
Professor  Drummond  is  a  theistic  evolutionist 
of  the  extremest  kind.  In  the  other  extreme 
of  theism  and  evolution,  we  have  those  who  wil- 
lingly admit  the  principle  of  evolution  in  a 
general  way ;  but  they  also  believe  that  God  is 
in  his  world,  exercising  creative  energy  Avhen 
and  where  he  wills.  Some  are  not  prepared  to 
grant  the  possibility  of  the  physical  man  being 
the  product  of  evolution;  and  many  deny  the 
possibility  of  evolution  accounting  for  the  gift 
of  speech,  or  for  reason,  conscience,  and  wor- 
ship. 

The  history  of  the  beginnings  of  civilization 
can  never  be  written  from  a  subjective  stand- 
point; for  races,  like  individuals,  can  neither 
remember  nor  chronicle  their  own  infancy. 
The  earth   is  dotted  with  the  sad  mementoes 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  87 

of  vanished  races.  Civilizations  that  had  at- 
tained a  certain  height  have  been  Wotted  ont 
by  tlie  savage.  In  Mexico  and  in  Peru  the 
higher  disappeared  before  the  lower.  Hiis  is 
also  true  of  Greece  and  Rome  so  far  as  culture 
is  concerned;  but  tlie  barbarians  who  overran 
Southern  Europe  were  cleaner  morally  than 
were  the  sensualists  of  Rome.  But  not  only 
does  history  tell  us  of  races  tliat  have  been 
overcome  by  the  valor  and  virtue  of  an  other- 
wise inferior  or  ruder  race,  we  also  see  in  our 
world  of  to-day,  in  the  Indian  population  of 
the  United  States,  in  the  natives  of  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  races 
disappearing  before  a  civilization  that  has  en- 
deavored in  a  more  or  less  blundering  way  to 
be  just  to  them,  and  before  a  Christianity 
wiiicli  has  pfiven  men  and  money  freely  for 
their  betterment.  But  tlie  treatment  of  the 
inferior  or  savage  races  by  the  conquering  and 
colonizing  races  has  been  neither  wise  nor  just. 
We  kill  them  before  we  give  ourselves  time  to 
elevate  them  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  Eioh- 
teen  centuries  ago  our  ancestors  were  naked 
or  hide-clad  savages,  living  in  dugouts,  or  in 
liuts  of  the  rudest  description.     Their  food  was 


38  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

wild  fruits,  and  animals  caught  in  hunting, 
supplemented  by  the  scantiest  husbandry. 
Their  religion  was  a  bloody  idolatry  which  de- 
manded human  sacrifices.  They  were  as  low 
as  Hottentot  or  American  Indian  or  South 
Sea  Islander  of  to-day.  It  may  be  affirmed 
that  at  this  point  the  comparison  ends.  These 
rude  forefathers  of  oui-s  on  British  moors,  by 
Danish  shores,  and  in  deep  German  woods,  had 
latent  capabilities  very  much  superior  to  those 
of  the  savage  races  of  to-day.  This  is  simple 
assertion,  nothing  more.  It  took  from  six  to 
nine  centuries  to  christianize  these  ancestors  of 
ours.  It  took  twelve  centuries  to  produce 
Chaucer  and  Wycliffe.  It  took  fifteen  centu- 
ries to  produce  the  Reformation,  Shakespeare, 
and  Bacon.  It  lias  taken  nineteen  centuries 
to  produce  us  of  to-day. 

In  the  last  hundred  and  fifty  years  we  have 
done  more  in  discovery  and  in  invention,  in 
physics  and  mechanics,  than  was  accomplished 
in  the  preceding  centuries  of  our  era ;  but  the 
Greeks  were  our  equals  from  a  purely  intellec- 
tual standpoint,  and  the  Christians  of  the  first 
three  centuries  were  our  equals  in  excellence 
of  morality.     The  divine  day  in  which  nations 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  39 

are  born  contains  more  than  twenty -four  hours. 
The  Mongolian  or  the  Negro  race  may  repre- 
sent the  highest  culture  and  the  purest  religion 
a  thousand  years  hence ;  for  who  can  prophesy 
what  the  result  may  be  when  these  now  barba- 
rous races  have  had  our  centuries  of  training. 
It  may  also  be  true  that  special  causes  stereo- 
type certain  races,  and  launch  others  on  a 
downward  career  so  inevitable  that  no  help 
from  without'  can  avert  their  ruin.  In  consid- 
ering the  development  and  decline  of  races, 
the  "  survival  of  the  fittest  "  explains  nothing. 
It  is  the  mere  antithesis  to  tlie  death  of  the 
Aveakest.  What  we  want  to  know  is  the 
philosophy  of  the  causes  that  produce  fitness 
and  weakness.  AVe  are  wise  after  the  event. 
This  ex  post  facto  reasoning  is  interesting  and 
instructive  in  its  way.  We  have  histories 
sacred  and  secular,  so  far  as  themes  and  modes 
of  treatment  are  concerned,  and  histories  of 
the  church,  and  histories  of  civilization  in 
abundance.  It  is  easy  to  reason  that  the  in- 
vention of  the  art  of  printing,  the  discovery 
of  America,  the  decay  of  chivalry,  the  growing 
power  of  cities  and  trades'  guilds  as  the  natural 
foes   of    feudalism,   the    dispersion    of    Greek 


40  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

speech  and  Greek  learning  by  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople and  other  causes,  had  a  cumulative 
force  which  had  to  result  in  the  Reformation. 
And  we  talk  about  the  times  making  the  man, 
and  the  man  making  the  times.  God  makes 
the  man.  He  dowers  him  with  the  Christian 
consciousness,  and  the  peasant  priest,  the  mi- 
ner's son,  stands  before  kings.  It  is  the  unex- 
pected that  happens.  Take  the  case  of  Italy. 
The  States  of  the  Church  were  badly  governed. 
The  rest  of  the  country  was  in  even  a  worse 
condition,  with  the  exception  of  the  northern 
kingdom.  The  country  was  cut  up  into  pettj^ 
principalities.  There  was  no  constitutional 
government.  Misrule  and  grave  oppression 
everywhere  except  in  the  north.  The  igno- 
rance of  the  masses  was  unspeakable.  Brigand- 
age came  to  the  gates  oi  almost  every  city  in 
Italy.  The  ancient  spirit  seemed  dead.  The 
land  of  Petrarch  and  Dante,  not  to  mention  the 
greater  names  of  those  who  flourished  Avhen 
the  CcGsars  reigned  in  Rome,  had  now  become 
a  by-word  among  the  nations.  There  was  no 
reasoning  or  prophesying  of  that  breath  of 
life  at  the  mysterious  touch  of  which  Cavour, 
Garibaldi,  and  Victor  Immanuel  came  forth 
to  build  up  tjie  united  Italy  of  to-day. 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  41 

Take  another  example,  nearer  to  Eng4ish 
speakers  in  interest  though  more  remote  in 
time.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
a  kind  of  moral  and  spiritual  torpor  prevailed 
in  Britain  and  America.  The  Reformation  was 
two  hundred  years  old ;  and  the  visible  outcome 
of  it,  with  the  exception  of  an  illustrious  his- 
tory, was  ecclesiasticism  and  infidelity.  In  Eng- 
land the  lower  orders  of  the  clergy  were  too 
often  recruited  from  men  who  were  utterly  in- 
competent from  a  moral  or  a  literary  stand- 
point. In  its  more  desirable  livings,  the  church 
was,  to  the  privileged  classes,  just  wliat  the 
army  and  navy  was,  —  a  good  place  for  younger 
sons.  Fielding,  Richardson,  and  Smollet  sup- 
plied the  literature  of  polite  society.  There 
was  a  little  more  outward  decency  than  in  the 
time  of  the  shameless  vice  of  the  period  of 
the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.,  but  gambling 
was  common  among  both  sexes  in  the  best 
houses  of  the  land.  Bull-baiting,  dog-iighting, 
and  pugilism  without  gloves,  were  popular 
amusements  ;  and  intemperance  was  common 
anion cr  all  classes  of  the  community.  In  Scot- 
land  the  era  of  moderatism  prevailed.  The 
pulpit   was    lax.      Drunkenness    was    perhaps 


42  THE  CHlUSTtAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

more  common  than  in  England.  Conversion 
was  sneered  at  by  the  greater  part  of  the 
clergy.  The  voices  that  came  from  the  pul- 
pits, where  the  heroes  and  martyrs  of  the  Ref- 
ormation had  thundered,  were  but  passionless 
definition  of  doctrine,  elegant  rhetoric  of  the 
cool  and  collected  kind,  and  a  Dryasdust  mo- 
rality. 

In  , America  the  Puritan  fervor  of  New 
England  had  to  a  great  extent  disappeared ; 
and  in  its  place  had  come  an  awkward  aping 
of  fashion,  state,  and  ceremony,  which  sat  clum- 
sily on  men  who  were  born  to  faith,  but  who 
had  lost  sight  of  their  birthright  in  aping  an 
unattainable  culture.  In  the  South  there  ex- 
isted all  the  religion  and  all  the  morality  that 
were  possible  where  domestic  slavery  jDrevails, 
where  the  mixed  color  tells  the  story  of  the 
white  man's  licentiousness,  and  of  the  colored 
woman's  degradation.  In  the  North  they  were 
freethinkers.  In  the  South  tliey  were  free- 
livers.;  and  occasionally  a  member  of  the  chiv- 
alry sold  his  colored  daughter  into  harlotrj^ 
when  he  w^as  hard  up,  and  occasionally  he  lost 
his  offspring  at  a  gentlemanly  game  of  cards. 
There  were  illustrious  exceptions.     Tliere  were 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  43 

many  Lots  in  these  eighteenth  centniy  Sodonis. 
There  were  pious  clergymen,  and  there  were 
holy  families.  Purity  and  piety  had  not  fled 
tlie  earth  entirely,  but  evil  was  rampant.  Al- 
most simultaneously  on  both  sides  of  tlie  At- 
lantic, men  who  were  born  leaders  arose  to 
champion  evangelical  religion.  Great  revivals 
and  the  birth  of  modern  missions,  home  and 
foreign,  were  the  immediate  results. 

Into  one  soul  is  born    the  thought  that  or- 
ganized missions    to   the   heathen  nations   was 
the    will    of    God   and   the    duty    of   Christian 
churches,  and  many   missions    arise.     Into    an- 
other comes  the  blessed  thought  to  send  leaves 
from  the  Bible  over  the  earth,  like  leaves  from 
some  tree   of   life,  —  the  first  Bible   society   is 
formed,  and  many  follow   in   its    train.     What 
is  the  genesis  of  these  movements,  and  of  the 
men  who  led  them,  nay,  who  originated  them. 
It  is  easy  to    be    wise  after  the  event,  and  to 
philosophize  as  to  the  likelihood   or   necessity 
of   some   sucli   movement  just  at  such  a  time. 
There    is    a    striking   passage    in    Sir    William 
Dawson  s    last    book,    "The    Meeting-place    of 
Geology   and    History,"    which    deserves  to  be 
quoted   as   the   deliberate   opinion    of   an   emi- 


44  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

nent  thinker,  who  has  devoted  himself  dur- 
ing a  long  life  to  the  study  of  geology,  but 
who  is  one  of  the  few  scientists  who  are  also 
scholarly,  sympathetic,  and  competent  archgeol- 
ogists  and  critics  of  the  Bible.  In  chapter  viii., 
the  subject  of  which  is  "  The  Palantliropic  Age 
in  the  Light  of  History,"  he,  inter  al'ia^  dem- 
onstrates that  the  testimony  of  history  and 
of  geology  is  in  favor  of  tlie  arts  of  civiliza- 
tion orig-inatinof  Avith  g-reat  inventors,  that  so- 
ciety  has  at  times  advanced  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  rather  than  by  a  slow  uniformitarian 
process.  We  quote  the  closing  sentence  of 
liis  argument.  "  It  is  true  that  Genesis  repre- 
sents its  early  inventors  as  mere  men,  albeit 
'  sons  of  God,'  wdiile  they  often  appear  as  gods 
or  demi-gods  in  tlie  early  history  of  the  heathen 
nations  ;  but  the  fact  remains,  that  then,  as 
now,  the  rare  appearance  of  God-given  inven- 
tive genius  is  the  sole  cause  of  the  greater 
advances  in  art  and  civilization.  Spontaneous 
development  may  produce  socialistic  trades' 
unions  or  Chinese  stagnation  ;  but  great  gifts, 
whether  of  prophecy,  of  song,  of  scientific  in- 
sight, or  of  inventive  power,  are  the  inspiration 
of  the  Almighty." 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN  45 

In  the  preceding  chapter,  inspiration  has 
been  defined  as  "  tlie  gift  of  infallibility  in  the 
proclamation  of  moral  and  religious  truth."  It 
is  evident  that  Sir  William  Dawson  uses  the 
word  in  a  wider  sense  than  that  of  our  defi- 
nition. He  is  in  accord  with  the  conventiojial 
use  of  the  word.  In  this  more  general  and 
popular  sense,  Shakespeare,  and  the  first  man 
who  made  a  lire,  and  the  first  man  who  repre- 
sented a  sound  by  a  written  character,  were 
all  inspired  ;  but  in  the  higher  sense,  we  con- 
fine the  term  inspiration  to  those  whose  words 
or  thoughts  came  to  them  by  the  special  affla- 
tus of  the  Spirit,  so  that  they  were  infallible 
teachers.  In  the  combination  of  inspiration 
and  revelation  the  writers  of  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures stand  alone. 


46  THE  CHlilSTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   DESTINY   OF    MAN 

The  Christian  consciousness  knows.  It  has 
moral  certainty  and  spiritual  assurance  ;  but  it 
does  not  make  any  claim  to  infallibility,  even 
in  its  own  peculiar  province.  The  Scriptures 
are  infallible,  but  there  are  two  serious  dis- 
counts to  their  practical  infallibility.  The  first 
is  as  to  what  measure  of  certainty  we  have  that 
this  reading  is  that  which  was  penned  by  its 
inspired  author.  An  unnecessary  prominence 
has  been  given  to  this  possibility  of  error 
creeping  in  through  human  fraud  and  careless- 
ness in  translation  and  in  transcription,  by  the 
prominence  given  to  the  "  original  autographs" 
in  a  recent  deliverance  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  North  in  the  United 
States.  The  second  discount  to  the  practical 
infallibility  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  rule  of 
life  arises  from  that  diversity  of  interpretation 
concernino-  docrma  and  morals  to  which  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  refer  in  subsequent  chap- 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  47 

ters.  While  theoretically  an  argument  might 
be  made  for  the  infallibility  of  the  Christian 
consciousness,  the  doctrine  is  of  little  or  no 
practical  utility.  Nothing  is  gained  by  prov- 
ing the  possibility  of  that  which  never  occurs. 
We  assume  the  position  that  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness is  not  always  and  necessarily  infalli- 
ble. It  is  not  inspiration  in  the  closer  definition 
of  tlie  word ;  but  it  is  inspiration,  or  it  may  be, 
of  the  more  general  kind  as  seen  in  the  use  of 
the  word  by  Sir  William  Dawson.  It  often 
possesses  all  the  joy  of  illumination ;  but  it  is 
oftentimes  far  more  than  illumination.  It  is 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  with  our  spirits  con- 
cerning truth.  It  is  both  the  wisdom  revealed 
to  us  and  in  us.  It  is  the  supreme  test  of 
spiritual  truth.  We  make  the  expression 
''spiritually  minded"'  do  duty  for  many  things 
to  which  the  Xew  Testament  does  not  apply  it. 
Very  often  Christian  consciousness  would  be 
the  better  expression. 

When  Carlyle  wrote,  "Nobler  in  this  world 
know  I  none  than  a  peasant  saint,"  it  was  not 
because  there  was  any  patent  of  nobility  at- 
tached to  a  combination  of  poverty  and  saint- 
liness.     There  would   really  be   much  more  to 


48  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

wonder  at,  and  to  esteem  as  noble,  in  finding 
earnest  piety  combined  with  very  great  wealth, 
or  with  earthly  positions  of  honor  and  of  power. 
It  could  not  be  that  the  association  of  saintli- 
ness  with  husbandry  conferred  special  honor. 
None  knew  better  than  Carlyle  that  the  humble 
tillers  of  the  soil  of  his  native  land  were  of  the 
lineage  of  confessors,  saints,  and  martyrs.  Witli 
the  keen  insight  of  the  seer,  he  saw  in  the 
peasant  saint  one  whose  mind  was  a  tribunal 
to  which  grand  moral  issues  came  for  judg- 
ment. The  rustic  could  stand  among  princes, 
for  he  could  speak  the  imperative  yea  and  nay 
in  life. 

The  Christian  consciousness  puts  great  honor 
upon  man.  Christian  revelation  and  scientific 
evolution  unite  in  declaring  that  the  world  was 
made  for  man,  and  that  man  is  the  flower  of 
all  the  centuries,  and  the  lord  of  this  visible 
creation.  The  end  is  not  yet.  Evolution  can- 
not say  that  the  processes  of  nature  have 
reached  their  goal,  and  that  now,  or  ere  long, 
development  is  to  give  place  to  permanence. 
Evolution  of  the  scientific  kind  distinctly 
repudiates  this  most  unscientific  assumption. 
Nor  can  evolution  consistently  affirm  that  man 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  49 

returns  to  dust,  once  more  takes  his  place 
among  elemental  matter,  and  begins  once  more 
the  mighty  circle  of  life.  It  is  as  unscientific 
to  suppose  that  evolution  is  a  circle,  as  to 
suppose  that  it  has  reached,  or  can  reach,  an 
ultimate  and  permanent  form.  The  more 
thoughtful  evolutionists  are  asking  tlie  ques- 
tion. What  comes  next  in  the  destiny  of  man? 
He  watches  the  progress  from  cosmic  dust  to 
life  in  its  lowest  forms,  but  with  the  origin  of 
life  unsolved.  From  primitive  life  to  the 
higher  mammals  is  a  chain  from  which  links 
are  missing,  —  from  the  ape  to  man  the  great- 
est, most  obvious  missing  link  of  all,  and  then 
upward  from  the  lowest  savage  to  the  wisest 
and  best  men  of  to-day.  And  what  shall  come 
next?  Surely  honor  is  put  upon  man.  Here 
or  hereafter  there  must  be  something  in  store 
for  him  who  is  made  a  little  lower  tlian  God. 

Physical  science  and  invention  and  discovery 
have  faith  in  the  future.  They  look  back  but 
a  century,  and  the  many  uses  of  electricity  and 
steam  are  unknown.  Only  a  hundred  years 
ago,  and  many  of  those  things  which  have  be- 
come the  necessities  of  our  civilization  were 
unknown.     It  is  almost  a  certainty  that  more 


50  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

will  be  accomplished  in  the  twentieth  centuiy 
than  has  been  achieved  in  the  nineteenth,  and 
a  hundred  years  from  now  they  may  truly 
affirm  that  the  twentieth  century  has  accom- 
plished more  than  the  nineteenth  accomplished. 
Social  science  has  also  her  forward  look. 
She  sees  the  time  when  human  life  will  be 
sweetened  and  lengthened  by  a  wise  hygiene  ; 
when  the  earth  will  be  able  to  su^Dport  all  her 
children  in  positive  comfort;  when  labor  and 
capital  shall  not  conspire  against  each  other; 
when  there  shall  be  no  darkest  England,  or 
nihilist  Russia,  or  anarchist  America  ;  when  the 
submerged  tenth  shall  have  been  elevated  into 
social  comfort  and  contentment ;  when  the  sa- 
loon and  the  gambling-house  shall  be  matters 
of  history ;  and,  above  all,  when  the  vision  of 
the  Hebrew  seer  shall  be  fulfilled,  and  men 
shall  learn  the  art  of  war  no  more.  Religion 
has  her  forward  look.  By  faith's  clear  vision 
she  sees  the  day  when  all  the  earth  shall  have 
heard  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel,  and  when 
no  man  shall  have  to  sa}^  to  his  neighbor, 
*'  Know  the  Lord ;  "  when  men  shall  no  longer 
exalt  this  sect  or  that  denomination,  but  when 
schism  shall  be  healed,  and  we  shall  all  be  one 
on  earth. 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  51 

But  material,  social,  and  religious  progress 
does  not  answer  the  (question,  '•  What  is  the  next 
step  in  the  destiny  of  man?"  Evil  may  be 
diminished,  though  we  cannot  tear  sin  up  by  the 
roots.  Many  moral  improvements  may  come 
by  tlie  cultivation  of  ethics,  and  by  the  develop- 
ment of  social  science  ;  but  personal  holiness 
may  not  grow  in  like  proportion.  Moral  or 
spiritual  growth  is  not  necessarily  aided  by  our 
achievements  in  physical  science.  A  man  who 
can  cross  the  Atlantic  in  five  days  is  not  one 
whit  more  of  a  man,  is  not  cleaner  of  soul 
or  purer  in  life,  is  no  truer  to  friend  and  lover, 
than  he  wlio  had  to  battle  with  Avind  and 
wave  for  thirty  days  to  reach  his  goal.  Paul's 
sermon  on  liars'  Hill  would  not  have  been 
more  sublime  if  he  had  travelled  to  Greece 
on  a  steam-yacht.  The  hand  that  bent  the 
yew  bow  was  just  as  steady,  and  the  heart 
as  brave,  as  are  his  who  handles  the  modern 
rifle.  The  telephone  is  a  triumph  of  civili- 
zation, but  is  a  doubtful  aid  to  morals. 
We  can  suppose  our  social  burdens  lightened 
by  wise  legislation,  our  churches  rejoicing  in 
visible  union,  and  the  gospel  proclaimed  in 
all   lands ;    and  yet  open   and  secret  sin   may 


52  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

abound,  even  while  the  grossness  of  it  and  the 
volume  of  it  may  be  diminished.  In  a  cen- 
tury we  may  make  notable  progress,  and  yet 
the  destiny  of  man  is  still  unsolved.  Immor- 
tality is  the  only  solution  of  the  problem  of 
the  present  life.  Morality  demands  a  future  in 
which  the  cultivation  of  virtue  and  the  j^ursuit 
of  knowledge,  that  have  been  cut  off  by  death, 
may  be  resumed.  Truth  demands  its  vindica- 
tion. Justice  declares  that  every  man  should 
face  his  record.  The  everlasting  right  beholds 
the  imperfect  administration  of  justice  this  side 
of  the  grave,  and  says  that  there  must  be  a 
future  in  wliich  wrongs  shall  be  made  right. 
All  these  natural,  reasonable,  and  moral  de- 
sires are  part  of  our  Christian  consciousness. 
Science  and  religion  occupy  common  ground 
as  to  the  destiny  of  man.  Science  beholds  him 
standing  erect,  the  apex  of  creation's  pyramid, 
at  once  the  product,  and  the  heir  and  the  king, 
of  all  the  ages  ;  and  she  says,  "  He  is  crowned 
with  glory  and  honor."  The  Christian  sees 
Him  wlio  is  invisible,  and  says,  ''  Thou  hast 
crowned  him  with  glory  and  honor."  Agnos- 
ticism admits  that  there  is  as  much  to  be  said 
for  theism  as  against  it.     Atheism  in  any  form 


THE  DESTINY   OF  MAN  53 

is  a  dimiiiisliing  quantity.  Tlie  number  of 
tliose  wlio  admit  the  existence  and  personality 
of  God,  the  First  Cause,  is  steadily  growing. 
To-day  there  are  many  scientific  thinkers  who 
are  not  avowedly  Christian,  but  who  are  more 
theistic  than  agnostic.  The  divine  Word  says, 
"  God  made  man  ;  "  the  materialist  says,  "  Man 
made  God."  The  Word  says,  "  God  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting ; "  the  materialist 
says,  ''  Matter  is  from  everlasting  to  ever- 
lasting." 

The  science  of  evolution  is  not  materialism. 
Science  is  keen-eyed  as  far  as  her  vision  will 
carry.  She  sees  the  mighty  chain  of  life.  High- 
est of  the  highest,  alone  in  the  completeness 
of  His  glory,  is  tlie  Almighty  First  Cause. 
There  are  ministering  spirits  round  his  throne ; 
but  of  them  we  are  told  little,  and  conjecture 
ever   flies    with    broken   wing.     Next    is    man, 

—  a  motley  group.  At  one  end  we  find  Wash- 
ington, Cromwell,  Shakespeare,  Augustine,  Paul, 
John  the  Baptist,  and  Moses.  With  them  class 
all   lovers    of    God   and    of    their    fellow-men, 

—  the  virtuous  poor  and  the  unselfish  rich. 
We  descend  through  the  ranks  of  greed  and 
lust  and   shame,   of    sorrow  and  of   sin,   until 


54  THE  CHBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

we  reach  the  lowest  of  tlie  low  in  the  disgust- 
ing and  ingenious  vice  of  some  great  cit}^,  or 
among  those  wdio  dance  in  glee  at  the  canni- 
bal feast  in  dai-kest  Africa. 

But  the  Salvation  Army  goes  down  into  the 
slum ;  and  this  almost  bestial  man  is  clothed 
and  in  his  right  mind,  living  cleanly,  and  learn- 
ing to  think  cleanly.  The  missionary  goes 
to  the  cannibal  village ;  and  ere  long  some 
of  these  cannibals  are  transformed,  and  they 
pray  to  the  unseen  Father,  —  they  know  God. 
They  have  Christian  consciousness.  Science 
looks  upon  the  manlike  ape  next  to  man  in 
nature's  descending  scale,  and  sees  no  soul, 
no  speech,  no  conscience,  and  no  shame.  They 
w^ll  not  eat  their  own  kind ;  they  are  not  can- 
nibals. They  will  fight  with  each  otlier,  or 
witli  other  animals ;  but  there  is  no  devilish 
ingenuity  of  cruelty,  and  no  skill  in  torturing, 
to  which  western  Christian  civilization  liad 
resort,  not  so  very  long  ago,  and  which  flour- 
ishes in  China  to-day ;  but  science  sees  divine 
possibilities  in  these  men  who  to-day  are  in 
some  respects  worse  than  brutes,  and  her  solemn 
verdict  is,  that  man  is  nearer  to  God  than 
he   is   to   these    apes.     Nearly   three    thousand 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  55 

years  ago,  David  the  poet  sang  the  greatness 
of  the  Creator  manifested  in  the  greatness  of 
the  creature,  and  said,  ''  Thou  hast  made  man 
a  little  lower  than  God."  The  dream  and 
the  hope  of  the  best  science  of  to-day  sit  at 
tlie  feet  of  this  sure  word  of  revelation. 

The  destiny  of  man  is  a  future  of  divine 
possibilities.  In  Eden  the  tempter  came  and 
said,  "Ye  shall  be  as  God,"  as  the  Revised 
Version  puts  it ;  but  the  suggested  act  was  im- 
moral, and  the  result  was  fatal.  It  was  the 
true  goal  by  a  wrong  road.  Sometimes  the 
relio'ious  consciousness  is  very  low.  Man  has 
no  language  of  the  spiritual  life  but  a  cry; 
but  the  cry  has  been  for  knowledge  of  God, 
for  likeness  to  God.  As  religious  culture  ad- 
vances, our  watchword  is  not  so  much,  "  Heaven 
our  home,"  as  it  is,  "  God  our  Father."  The 
highest  aspiration  of  the  child  of  God  is  not 
to  escape  a  condition  of  loss  and  suffering, 
or  even  to  gain  a  condition  of  bliss  and  reward, 
but  it  is  to  become  like  God. 

But  who  shall  bridge  the  gulf  between  God 
and  man,  between  humanity  and  divinity? 
Here  is  another  missing  link.  Hitherto  the 
science  of  evolution  has  searched,  and  searched 


^6         THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

in  vain  very  often,  for  the  missing  links  in 
the  ascending  series  of  creation.  But  there 
are  three  great  missing  links ;  and  could  these 
be  found,  every  other  gap  is  a  question  of  de- 
tail, and  might  be  left  to  time.  The  first  miss- 
ing link  is  tliat  which  is  between  the  inorganic 
and  the  organic,  between  death  and  life.  Spon- 
taneous generation  has  not  been  proved.  We 
must  go  back  to  the  Word  of  life:  "Let  the 
waters  bring  forth ; "  "  Let  the  earth  bring 
forth."  The  second  missing  link  is  that  which 
connects  the  animal  life  of  the  brute  with  the 
soul  life  of  man.  We  search  in  vain  until 
we  fall  back  on  the  divine  cosmogony,  and 
learn  that  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul. 
The  third  and  last  missing  link  is  that  which 
connects  man  with  God.  We  cannot  find  it 
in  physical  development.  Suppose  that  by  pu- 
rity of  life  and  knowledge  of  hygiene,  man 
were  to  get  back  to  the  length  of  days  of 
the  antediluvians.  This  is  not  becoming  like 
Him  with  whom  one  day  is  as  a  thousand 
years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day.  He 
cannot  expect  to  find  it  by  any  growth  in 
knowledge;   for  the   pleasant  pain  of  growing 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  57 

knowledge  is,  that  each  secret  we  wrest  from 
nature  reveals  new  regions  of  the  unknown. 
The  development  of  this  missing  link  is  spir- 
itual. It  has  to  do  with  likeness.  Man  who 
has  borne  the  image  of  the  earthly  must  take 
on  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  How  is  it  to  be 
accomplished  ?  There  are  two  factors  to  evolu- 
tion or  development  of  species.  The  first  is 
the  innate  or  inherent  energy ;  and  the  second 
is  the  environment,  which  develops  the  stream 
of  tendency,  and  provides  for  the  survival  of 
the  fittest.  Revelation  fulfils  the  demands  of 
science.  It  declares  that  man  has  this  innate 
or  inherent  energy,  for  he  was  made  in  the 
image  of  God.  The  second  demand  is  fulfilled 
by  Christ,  who  is  our  environment.  We  can 
be  found  in  him. 

With  the  profoundest  reverence  it  may  be 
affirmed  that  at  this  end  of  the  process  there 
is  not  a  missing  link.  It  is  found  in  Christ, 
who  clasps  humanity  wdth  one  hand  and  di- 
vinity with  the  other.  He  took  our  humanity 
on  him,  that  we  might  take  his  divinity  on  us. 
We  are  children  and  heirs  wdth  him.  He  is 
our  elder  Brother.  God  never  gives  empty 
titles.    "Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father 


58  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

hath  bestowed  on  us,  that  we  should  be  called 
sons  of  God." 

Science,  if  true  to  evolution  and  development, 
must  point  to  a  development  of  man  beyond 
his  present  place  and  power.^     As  has  been  said, 

1  This  view  is  not  held  by  Mr.  Huxley.  In  one  of  his  more 
recent  utterances,  the  Romanes  leoture  for  1893,  he  saj^s: 
"The  theory  of  evolution  encourages  no  millennial  anticipa- 
tions. If,  for  millions  of  years,  our  globe  has  taken  the 
upward  road,  yet  some  time  the  summit  will  be  reached,  and 
the  downward  route  will  be  commenced.  The  most  daring 
imagination  will  hardly  venture  upon  the  suggestion  that  the 
power  and  the  intelligence  of  man  can  ever  arrest  the  pro- 
cession of  the  great  year. 

"It  is  true  that  science  bears  witness  to  the  occurrence  of 
cataclysms  and  catastrophes  in  the  past;  and  the  thing  that 
has  been  may  be  again.  It  does  not  require  the  most  daring 
imagination  to  picture  the  gradual  or  rapid  approach  of 
another  glacial  period,  or  of  another  period  of  extreme,  more 
than  tropical,  heat.  Even  if  bearable,  they  would  alter  the 
conditions  of  human  life;  and  in  that  combat  between  the 
microcosm  and  the  macrocosm,  —  that  is,  between  the  ethical 
and  the  cosmic  force,  —  the  cosmos  would  regain  all  the  ground 
that  has  been  lost."  All  this  may  be  granted.  It  does  not  affect 
the  destiny  of  man.  Other  races  of  men  may  have  preceded 
the  Adamic  race,  but  we  have  no  more  moral  relation  to  them 
than  we  have  to  the  inhabitants  of  Venus.  We  have  the 
Flood  in  the  past,  concerning  which  the  eminent  scientist,  Sir 
William  Dawson,  finds  geological  testimony  which  corroborates 
the  Biblical  account,  and  the  Nineveh  tablet  gives  archaio- 
logical  indorsement.  This  catastrophe  was  a  new  departure  for 
the  human  family.  In  2  Peter  iii.  5-13  we  have  an  account  of 
a  cataclysm  to  come,  and  modern  science  admits  that  it  is 
quite  possible;  and  this  also  will  end  the  earth  life  of  man. 
We  need  a  future  for  our  evolution  of  man.    Mr.  Huxley's 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN  59 

physical  and  intellectual  progress  meet  tlie 
case  only  in  part.  Science  gropes  after  immor- 
tality; revelation  declares  it.  Jolni  Fiske,  in 
his  "  Destiny  of  Man,"  says  that  "  The  doctrine 
of  evolution  does  not  allow  us  to  take  the  atlieis- 
tic  view  of  the  position  of  man."  This  essay  and 
its  sequel,  "  The  Idea  of  God,"  by  the  same 
author,  deserve  far  more  attention  than  they 
have  received.  They  state  with  scrupulous 
honesty  the  progress  and  the  limitations  of 
the  scientific  theist ;  and  viewed  from  the  stand- 
point of  Christian  belief  they  are  among  the 
most  significant  utterances  of  science  in  this 
generation. 

Science  declares  that  man  at  his  best  is 
nearer  to  the  divine  than  to  the  brutal,  and 
it  also  declares  that  at  his  Avorst  he  has  the 
inlierent  power  to  rise  to  liis  best.  Revelation 
declares  that  God  lias  made  him  but  little  less 
than  God,  and  has  crowned  him  with  glory 
and  honor.  Science  demands  efficient  causes 
for  phenomena.  Revelation  points  to  the  ori- 
ginal God  image,  and  then  to  Him  who  was 
at  once  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  man. 

view  is  in  accord  with  the  testimony  of  revelation  to  the  past, 
and  also  to  the  future,  of  the  earth. 


60  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  destiny  of  the  brute  is  beyond  and  outside 
of  any  volition  or  plan  on  its  part.  Man's  des- 
tiny, in  a  very  important  sense,  is  in  his  own 
hands.  There  is  a  royal  road  to  his  highest 
development.     It  is  by  Him  who  is  the  way. 

Christianity  asserts  the  dignity  of  man. 
It  declares  that  a  believer  has  been  born 
again  by  an  incorruptible  seed,  by  a  living 
and  abiding  ever-continuing  word  of  God.  He 
is  in  present  possession  of  eternal  life.  Is  not 
Christian  consciousness  natural  and  to  be  ex- 
pected? Would  it  not  be  strange  if  this  son 
and  heir  should  be  so  estranged  from  his  Father 
that  there  was  no  sympathetic  knowledge  be- 
tween them?  The  unused  power  slirinks, 
shrivels,  and  weakens.  This  is  true  in  the 
physical,  the  intellectual,  and  the  spiritual. 
Is  our  Christian  consciousness  atrophied  by 
disuse  ? 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MORALS  61 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   EVOLUTION   OF   MORALS 

The  consideration  of  the  influence  that  the 
Christian  consciousness  has  upon  the  develop- 
ment or  evolution  of  morals,  ethics,  and  doc- 
trine, is  to  a  certain  extent  influenced  by  the 
use  which  has  already  been  made  of  it.  As 
has  been  stated  in  the  first  chapter,  Schleier- 
macher's  position  is,  that  religion  consists 
properly  in  feeling.  This  is  with  him  a  fun- 
damental principle.  But  those  who  reject 
the  sensationalism  of  Schleiermacher  will  nat- 
urally be  led  to  reject  his  assertion  that  we 
have  an  immediate  consciousness  of  the  di- 
yine,  —  a  God  consciousness.  The  attempt  of 
the  Ritchslian  school  to  reconcile  supranat- 
uralism  and  rationalism  is  the  chivalry  of  dog- 
matics when  looked  at  from  one  point  of 
view ;  but  when  the  inspiration  of  Scripture 
is  yielded  as  a  lost  cause,  so  far  as  its  pres- 
ent lines  of  defence  are  concerned,  only  to 
be  rescued  by  the  Christian  consciousness,  or- 


{j:>         THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

thodoxy  naturally  and  properly  takes  alarm,  and 
of  course  regards  with  suspicion  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  which  rescues  the  doctrine 
that  ouo-ht  not  to  have  been  abandoned. 

In  the  A7idover  Bevieiv  of  October,  1884, 
there  appeared  a  paper  by  Professor  George 
Harris,  entitled,  "  The  Function  of  the  Clnis- 
tian  Consciousness."  This  article  was  a  de- 
fence of,  and  a  plea  for,  the  so-called  Andover 
theology,  which  for  various  reasons,  into  which 
it  is  not  tlie  province  of  the  present  work 
to  go,  was  much  more  prominently  before  the 
public  then  than  it  is  now.  The  points  which 
Professor   Harris  makes  and  elaborates  are:  — 

I.  ''The  Christian  consciousness  gives  cer- 
tainty to  the  individual  concerning  the  truth 
of  Christianity." 

II.  "  Another  exercise  of  the  function  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  is  the  progressive  devel- 
opment of  theology." 

III.  "  The  relatiom  of  Christian  conscious- 
ness to  the  Bible." 

It  was  natural,  and  to  be  expected,  that  in 
the  then  active  stage  of  this  particular  phase 
of  the  controversy,  criticism  of  this  article  was 
at  once  prompt  and  general.     Dr.  Francis  Pat- 


THl^  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  G3 

ton  criticised  it  in  the  Independent ;  and  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  it  was  keenly 
and  trenchantly  done.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Behrends, 
in  the  Congregatmialist^  also  appeared  as  the 
champion  of  orthodoxy  as  opposed  to  the 
newer  school  at  Andover.  Tlieir  contention 
and  tlieir  fear  was  that  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  Scriptures  was  endangered  by  the  func- 
tions ascribed  to  the  Christian  consciousness 
by  Professor  Harris.  Nor  were  they  without 
reason  for  their  assertion,  for  the  third  divis- 
ion of  the  paper  in  question  is  lackiug  in 
precision  of  statement.  The  general  impres- 
sion which  the  reader  who  tries  to  follow  tlie 
discussion  with  all  possible  judicial  candor 
receives,  is  that  Professor  Harris  used  the 
"Christian  consciousness"  to  support  Andover 
theology,  and  that  the  critics  who  have  been 
named,  as  well  as  others,  Avere  prejudiced 
against  the  doctrine  of  Christian  conscious- 
ness because  of  the  use  to  which  it  had  been 
put.  There  is  no  need  for  alarm.  The  Chris- 
tian consciousness  of  the  individual  is  from 
God.  The  collective  Christian  consciousness 
of  the  church  is  from  God.  Our  philosophy 
of   consciousness   is   put  in  various   forms    by 


CA  THE  CHBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

different  schools.  Christian  consciousness  will 
be  the  subject  of  debate  as  to  mode  of  origin, 
essence,  and  functions,  just  as  inspiration  or 
conscience  is ;  but  the  individual  or  the  church 
that  wills  to  do  the  will  of  God  can  never 
be  led  by  the  Christian  consciousness  into  rad- 
ical error  of  doctrine  or  of  conduct. 

What  is  our  standard  of  Scripture  interpre- 
tation ?  Tlie  Roman  Catholic  says.  My  stan- 
dard is  the  church.  I  can  rest  in  blessed 
satisfaction.  The  church  tells  me  what  to 
believe  and  what  to  do.  The  great  councils 
have  issued  their  decrees.  Emergencies  may 
arise,  but  the  official  head  of  the  church  is 
officially  infallible.  He  thinks  he  has  not 
much  need  for  the  Christian  consciousness ; 
but  his  child  dies  after  a  few  struggling  mo- 
ments of  life.  In  the  hurry  and  excitement 
of  the  moment  tlie  sacrament  of  bajDtism  has 
been  neglected.  This  tiny  morsel  of  mortal- 
ity, this  unbaptized  babe,  is  to  suffer  eternal 
deprivation  and  disqualification  because  of  this ; 
and  when  he  and  the  mother  and  the  other 
more  fortunate  children  are  safely  gathered  on 
the  other  side,  this  frailest  blossom  of  the  par- 
ent tree  is   to   be   banished   eternally.     Chris- 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  (35 

tiaii  consciousness  rebels  and  doubts,  and  hopes 
against  hope,  and  finally  believes  better  than 
the  church's  creed.  In  tliese  more  enlightened 
times  Roman  Catholics  have  so  many  opportu- 
nities of  taking  knowledge  of  the  Christlike 
lives  of  some  of  their  Protestant  friends,  that 
the  doctrine  concerning  the  damnation  of  here- 
tics has  undergone  a  modifying  process.  The 
Christian  consciousness  demanded  it. 

Protestant  denominations  may  be  said  to  as- 
sert that  their  standard  of  Scripture  interpre- 
tation is  neither  church  nor  creed  nor  teacher. 
Each  and  every  one  is  to  search  the  Scriptures. 
What  do  I  think  about  Christ?  The  Scrip- 
tures testify  of  him.  The  duty  which  God 
requires  of  man  is  obedience  to  his  revealed 
will;  and  the  Word  of  God  is  the  only  rule 
to  direct  us.  Theoretically  this  sounds  beau- 
tiful, and  savors  of  a  large  freedom ;  but  the 
Protestant  sometimes  finds  that  his  denomina- 
tion is  a  close  corporation.  The  Confessional 
symbols  interpret  the  Scriptures,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  or  the  Conference  or  the  Asso- 
ciation interprets  the  Confessional  symbols  ;  and 
these  interpretations,  which  determine  who  are 
orthodox,   Avho    need    discipline,    and   who   de- 


(jQ         THE   CIiniSTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

serve  expulsion,  are  the  voice  of  a  majority, 
great  or  small,  —  a  majority  swayed  by  tlie 
heat  of  debate,  tlie  chronic  rivalry  of  individ- 
uals and  of  parties,  by  the  bitterness  of  po- 
litical strife,  or  by  the  pecuniary  interests 
involved,  and  often  by  the  avowed  determina- 
tion to  ignore  the  Christian  consciousness  as  a 
dangerous  and  misleading  factor.  It  is  easy  to 
reply  to  this,  that  it  magnifies  the  admixture 
of  error  and  human  frailty  which  inheres  in 
all  man's  work,  but  that  these  deliberations 
and  decisions  are  reached  by  godly  men,  who 
believe  in,  and  have  prayed  for,  the  Spirit's  pres- 
ence and  powder.  Most  gladly  is  all  this  con- 
ceded ;  but  history  is  history,  and  the  tyranny 
of  overbearing  majorities  is  only  equalled  by 
the  divisive  courses  of  stubborn  minorities. 
In  much  of  our  ecclesiastical  business  and  doc- 
trinal controversy  we  almost  expect  to  find 
men  stubborn  when  they  are  in  the  right,  and 
sublimely  obstinate  when  they  are  in  the 
wrong.  It  is  no  argument  in  favor  of  a  con- 
dition of  things  to  say  that  it  has  always 
been  so ;  and  to  say  that  the  thing  that  has 
always  been  is  the  will  of  God  is  a  mixture  of 
blasphemy  and  of  fatalism.     Surely  there  can 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  67 

be  a  better  way.  The  consideration  of  what 
the  Christian  consciousness  has  accomplished 
will  give  hope  concerning  the  future.  It  is 
desirable  to  enter  upon  this  investigation  with 
the  spirit  of  true  philosophic  inquiry.  We 
are  not  immediately  concerned  with  the  re- 
lation whicli  the  Christian  consciousness  bears 
to  this  doctrine  or  to  that.  The  outcome  may 
be  for  or  against  this  creed  or  that  denomina- 
tion. It  may  help,  or  it  may  antagonize,  the 
new  theology  or  the  higher  criticism,  or  it 
may  have  no  effect  on  either  of  those  phases 
of  doctrine. 

It  is  also  desirable  to  bear  in  mind  that 
the  common  Christian  consciousness  is  that  con- 
sensus concerning  doctrine,  morals,  or  ethics 
which  is  held  by  each  and  every  Christian. 
While  this  is  the  strict  definition,  we  usually 
call  that  tlie  common  Christian  consciousness 
which  is  the  common  or  predominant  thought 
of  the  followers  of  Christ.  It  is  self-evident, 
tliat,  while  the  consensus  of  a  bare  majorit}^ 
or  of  a  considerable  minority  may  be  regarded 
as  a  form  or  phase  of  Christian  consciousness, 
we  cannot  regard  it  as  being  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness   concerning    the    point    in    question. 


68  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  genuineness  and  authority  of  Christian 
consciousness  cannot  be  settled  by  a  majority 
vote. 

It  is  desirable  to  consider  the  relation  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  to  the  evolution 
or  development  of  morals  and  ethics,  apart 
from  its  relation  to  the  development  or  evo- 
lution of  doctrine.  What  is  meant  by  the 
expression?     Is  there  such  a  law  in  nature  as 

THE   EVOLUTION    OF   MORALS? 

Evolution  accounts  for  the  growth  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  as  well  as  for  the 
physical  man.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  illus- 
trations of  universal  progress,  says,  "  Little 
as  from  present  appearance  we  should  suppose 
it,  we  shall  yet  find  that  at  first  the  control 
of  religion,  the  control  of  laws,  and  the  con- 
trol  of  manners,  were  all  one  control.  How- 
ever incredible  it  may  now  seem,  we  believe 
it  to  be  demonstrable  that  the  rules  of  eti- 
quette, the  provisions  of  the  statute  book,  and 
the  commands  of  the  Decalogue,  have  grown 
from  the  same  root."  Now,  the  very  doctrine 
which  Mr.  Spencer  introduces  Avith  the  un- 
avoidable conscious   self-importance   of    even  a 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MORALS  G9 

modest  discoverer,  and  tells  us  how  incredible 
it  may  seem,  is  exactly  the  belief  of  many 
earnest  Christians.  Manners,  law,  and  morals 
have  grown  from  the  same  root,  have  been 
bruised  by  rough  handling,  their  kinship  is 
becoming  more  and  more  apparent.  In  well- 
ordered  Christian  families,  "  law,  religion,  and 
morals  "  do  spring  from  the  same  root.  In 
this  lies  our  hope  that  the  state  and  the 
world  will  yet  more  and  more  resemble  a 
holy  family.  Mr.  Spencer  evidently  takes 
no  small  amount  of  satisfaction  in  discover- 
ing tliree  fruits  from  one  root.  We,  too,  are 
satisfied,  but  not  quite  so  much  amazed  as  he 
is,  for  the  Tree  of  Life  has  twelve  manner 
of  fruits.  In  sympathy  with  the  position  of 
Herbert  Spencer,  George  Henry  Lewes,  in  his 
"Problems  in  Life  and  Mind,"  says,  "The  great 
desire  at  this  age  is  for  a  doctrine  which  may 
serve  to  condense  our  knowledge,  guide  our 
researches,  and  shape  our  lives,  so  that  con- 
duct may  be  the  result  of  belief."  i\Ir.  Lewes 
saw  no  hope  of  getting  such  a  doctrine  from 
revealed  religion.  His  hope  was  in  a  "religion 
founded  on  science."  The  Christian  philos- 
opher   maintains    that    the    Scriptures    unfold 


70  THE  CHBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

such  a  doctrine  ;  and  Christian  philosophy  goes 
deeper  than  this  distinguished  doubter's,  for 
it  dechires  that  love  keeps  the  commandments, 
and  he  that  wills  to  do  His  will  knows  the 
supranatural  excellence  of  the  doctrine. 

The  history  of  civilization  and  the  history 
of  morals  form  one  great  theme.  Guizot, 
Buckle,  and  Lecky  have  the  same  story  to 
tell,  however  different  their  motives  and  their 
manner  of  telling  may  be.  It  is,  of  course, 
with  the  development  of  morals  in  the  Chris- 
tian era  that  we  are  concerned.  We  have 
not  to  establish  or  prove  the  fact  of  this  devel- 
opment. It  is  universally  granted.  In  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  in  the  amelioration  of 
the  pencil  code,  in  our  thoughts  regarding, 
and  our  treatment  of,  such  questions  as  witch- 
craft, slavery,  foreign  missions,  and  temper- 
ance, we  recognize  the  fact  that  great  changes 
have  occurred,  and  that  great  advances  have 
been  made.  It  is  not  so  long  ago  that  the 
slave-ship  was  carrying  on  a  legitimate  busi- 
ness, and  that  slavery  was  a  most  Christian 
institution.  The  clergymen  of  a  hundred  years 
ao-o  had  not  beg^un  to  doubt  tlie  propriety  of 
the  habitual  use  of  intoxicating   liquors.     We 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  <1 

see   more   clearly  than   they  did,  and  we  won- 
der at   the  witch-burning,  and   the  reckless,  if 
legal,  killing  of  men  for  so  many  crimes.     We 
are    able    to   look    forward   to    the    time    when 
we    shall    have    overcome    many    of   the    evils, 
and  shall  have  got  rid  of  many  of  the  burdens, 
of  our  present  social  system.     While  the   fact 
of     development     in    morals    is    granted,    the 
greatest    diversity    exists    as    to    the    cause    or 
causes  of  man's   progress.     Long   before  there 
was  any  evolution  theory  with  regard  to  phys- 
ical   life,    evolution    theories    in    morals    were 
not  only  promulgated,  but   were  also   received 
with  little  question.     Not  until   these  theories 
were  .pushed    to    their    legitimate    conclusions 
was    the    alarm    taken.     The    vague    term   ex- 
perience was  credited  with  all  theoretical  and 
practical  progress  in  ethics.     Scholars  got  into 
the  habit  of  speaking  of  the  inductive  method 
as  being  the  true  and  only  cause  of  all  prog- 
ress  in  moral   as  well  as   in  physical  science. 
Many   scientists    scouted    the    bare    idea    of    a 
superintending,  adjusting,  or  interfering  Prov- 
idence  finding  anything  to  do  in  the  physical 
universe  of  to-day ;  and,  by  an  easy  transition, 
they  also  refused  to  believe  in  a  divine  moral 


72  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

government  and  governor.  But  the  moving 
of  God  out  of  his  universe,  either  by  denying 
his  existence,  or  by  removing  him  to  the 
infinite  height  and  solitude  of  the  Great  First 
Cause,  that  did  not  in  any  way  shape  or 
interfere  with  the  destiny  of  man,  did  not 
solve  the  difficulty.  What  is  the  philosophy  of, 
the  key  to,  the  satisfactory  explanation  of  that 
human  progress  which  we  commonly  term  the 
process  of  civilization  or  development  in  morals? 
Utilitarianism  was  credited  witli  much  devel- 
oping power.  We  are  told  in  the  Bible  that 
on  a  certain  occasion  when  good  men  were 
assembled,  Satan  appeared  also,^  as  indeed  he 
usually  does.  He  was  confronted  with  the 
problem  of  accounting  for  virtue  and  for  moral 
and  spiritual  excellence  ;  and  his  reply  was, 
"  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  naught  ?  "  He  is  the 
first  and  greatest  of  the  utilitarians ;  and  to-day 
we  have  the  sneer  about  "  worldliness  and  other- 
worldliness."  The  world  did  not  require  to 
wait  for  some  revealed  word  of  reply  to  this 
ingenious  theory  that  virtue  was  begotten  of 
selfishness,  and  that  morality  was  a  kind  of 
insurance  against  wrath  to  come,  whether  in 
1  Job  i.  6. 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  73 

this  or  in  some  future  state    of  existence.     In 
his  '^  Republic  "'  occurs  Plato's  well-known  crit- 
icism of  Homer;  and  one  fault  wliich  the  great 
philosopher  finds  with  the   grand  poet  is   that 
he  recommends  justice    by   the    inducement  of 
temporal  rewards,  and  thus  turns  morality  into 
prudence.     In  passing,  let  it  be  said  tliat  it  was 
a   dehcately   adjusted    religious     cousciousness 
which  scorned  the  idea  of  morality   having  no 
higher   inspiration  than    prudence.       He  could 
discern  with  clearness  many  of  what  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  in   his  ''Progress  of   Ethical  Plii- 
losophy,"  calls   the   ''august    and   sacred   land- 
marks that  stand  conspicuous  along  the  frontier 
between  right  and  wrong."      Mr.  Lecky  affirms 
that  utilitarianism  leads  to  conclusions  utterly 
and  outrageously  repugnant  to  the   moral  feel- 
ings.     Here  he  stands  with  Plato  against  the 
arch  enemy  ;  but  when  he  claims  that  general 
moral  principles  are  revealed  by  intuition,  are 
progressive,  and  that  theological  influences  re- 
tard philosopliical  truth,  we  are  not  so  sure  as  to 
what  side  he  is  on.     Buckle's  tests  of  growing 
civilization  are  the  absence  of   persecution  for 
religious  opinion,  and  not  going  to  war;  but  we 
naturally  ask  whether  these  so-called  tests  are 


74  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

the  causes  or  effects  of  civilization,  or  are  they 
not  more  properly  to  be  regarded  as  parts  of 
civilization  or  of  morality  ?  Buckle  gives  su- 
premacy to  the  intellect,  but  Comte  to  tlie 
heart.  There  is  much  that  is  attractive  in  the 
religion  of  humanity  which  we  can  learn  from, 
without  worshipping  humanity. 

The  "  struggle  for  existence  "  is  not  as  new  a 
thought  in  social  as  it  is  in  physical  science. 
Hesiod  said  that  society  was  constructed  on  a 
basis  of  competition ;  that  a  principle  of  strife 
which  makes  potter  foe  to  potter,  produces  all 
honorable  enterprise.  Physical  progress  is  se- 
cured by  the  destruction  of  unsuitable  forms, 
their  Aveeding  out,  and  by  the  cultivation  of  the 
successful ;  that  is,  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Nature  w^ants  nothing  but  a  fair  field  and  free 
play  for  the  strongest.  Trade  is  competition, 
a  struo-crle  for  existence.  The  survival  of  the 
sharpest  is  not  always  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
from  the  moral,  or  even  from  the  ethical,  stand- 
point. Moral  evolution  demands  a  fair  field 
and  fair  play  for  the  weakest.  It  does  not 
break  the  bruised  reed.  The  Christian  sociol- 
ogy of  to-day,  as  a  philosophy,  is  empiric  ^mply 
because  ethical  science  is  so  vague ;  but  in  many 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  3I0liALS  75 

of  the  practical  outcomes  of  it,  such  as  the  in- 
stitutional church,  coUeo^e  residences  amone  the 
lowly,  and  the  rescue  ^vork  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  it  is  saved  from  all  nomenclature  by  be- 
ing the  imitation  of  Cln-ist,  wlio  from  the  stand- 
point of  even  those  Avho  deny  his  divinity,  was 
tlie  greatest,  most  radical,  and  most  far-reach- 
ing reformer  tliat  has  ever  appeared  on  earth. 
F.  D.  Maurice's  "  Social  jNIoiality  "  created 
a  good  deal  of  interest  when  tlie  lectures  were 
delivered  and  afterwards  published.  It  has  his- 
torical insight  and  elevated  moral  sentiment, 
and  a  generous  enthusiasm  for  virtue ;  but  the 
questions  at  issue  now  were  not  on  the  field  of 
discussion  when  he  wrote.  He  cannot  escape 
the  environment  of  Oxford  and  of  the  State 
Church.  He  goes  out  of  his  way  to  make  a 
})lea  for  aristocracy  and  for  a  hereditary  legisla- 
ture. He  sees  advantage  in  the  inheritance  of 
patrician  and  plebeian,  and  with  proud  humility 
writes  himself  a  plebeian.  Of  course  not  a  few 
of  his  audience  were  self-complacent  juA^enile 
patricians.  We  ai"e  not  so  much  concerned 
about  whether  the  individual  or  the  family 
constitutes  the  unit  of  social  life,  as  to  how 
social  life  is  to  be  developed  in  the  unit  and  in 


76  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

the  family.  Hume  remarks  that  "  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  men  reason  in  morals  are 
always  the  same,  though  the  conclusions  which 
they  draw  are  often  very  different."  Tliis  was 
true  in  Hume's  time  ;  it  is  not  the  case  now. 

Tlie  systems  of  moral  philosophy  had  to  ac- 
count for  the  developments  of  virtue  and  of  vice, 
but  it  was  largely  done  as  an  abstract  science. 
The  metaphysicians  and  the  moralists  dissected 
the  mind  as  anatomists  dissected  the  body. 
They  had  their  vivisection  too,  but  it  consisted 
chiefly  in  the  relish  with  which  rival  schools 
cut  each  other  up.  The  political  economists 
imparted  a  human  interest  to  moral  philosophy 
which  it  did  not  before  possess.  Biology 
opened  a  new  and  very  productive  field  in 
the  study  of  man,  morally  and  intellectually  as 
well  as  physically.  The  comparatively  new 
science  of  sociology  Avas  a  study  of  moral  and 
physical  conditions,  and  it  was  also  an  active 
effort  to  remedy  and  to  help.  The  philosopher 
in  his  study  can  tell  us  a  great  deal  about  the 
moral  nature  of  man ;  but  the  study  of  the 
living  organism  Society  by  the  man  who  works 
in  college  settlement,  or  in  people's  palace,  or  in 
some  Salvation  Army  rescue  work,  gives  oppor- 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  11 

tunities  of  studying  problems  in  life  .and  mind 
and  morals  in  concrete  fashion.  Those  men 
who  are  combining  culture  with  practical  ^tudy 
of  social  conditions,  and  with  practical  efforts 
to  help  and  to  elevate,  know  that  their  Avork 
is  of  unusual  significance  in  these  days  of 
communism,  socialism,  unrest,  and  discontent. 
Bellamy  and  his  followers  and  imitators  dream 
of  a  social  future.  Novelists  weave  their  plots 
round  the  wa3^s  and  means  adapted  to  take 
some  moral,  intellectual,  and  social  sunshine 
into  darkest  England.  Slumming  becomes  a 
virtuous  rage.  Altruria  becomes  a  country ; 
and  altruism,  instead  of  being  almost  a  philo- 
sophical term,  becomes  almost  a  household 
word.  The  active  help  was  not  the  only  manner 
in  which  the  quickened  social  sympathy  mani- 
fested itself.  In  the  past,  when  a  strike  took 
place  the  general  public  looked  on  and  grum- 
bled when  their  own  comfort  was  interfered 
with;  but  the  general  feeling  was  expressed  by 
the  words,  ''Let  them  fight  it  out."  When  the 
discontent  became  riotous,  rebellious,  and  revo- 
lutionary, the  policy  was  to  give  the  dog  a  bone 
if  you  were  not  able  to  knock  him  on  the  head. 
Now  all  is  beine  changed.    Courts  of  arbitration 


78  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

are  being  discussed.  Trades  unions  and  or- 
ganized labor  generally  are  treated  with  respect. 
Wlien  a  strike  takes  place,  the  right  and  the 
wrong  of  it  are  vigorousl}^  discussed.  Eminent 
clergymen  win  the  applause  of  all  Avhen  they 
are  the  successful  peacemakers.  As  is  usually 
the  case  when  money  has  to  be  raised  and  ser- 
vice rendered,  much  of  the  work,  almost  all 
of  it,  in  fact,  which  looked  to  the  better  under- 
standing of  the  miserable,  and  to  their  better- 
ment in  a  permanent  fashion,  was  done  by  the 
churches  or  by  professedly  Christian  people. 
The  evolution  of  ethics  and  morals  had  been 
expounded  by  non-Christian  evolutionists.  Ma- 
terialist, positivist,  agnostic,  and  humanitarian 
had  all  had  their  say  ;  but  the  actual  was, 
meanwhile,  being  done,  not  by  the  followers 
of  these  various  schools,  but  by  Christians,  by 
the  churches,  by  ladies  living  among  the  lowly, 
by  scholarly  young  men  from  universities  and 
theological  seminaries,  and  by  the  soldiers,  male 
and  female,  of  the  Salvation  Army.  Tt  was 
hio-h  time  that  the  evolution  of  morals  should 
be  treated  from  the  point  of  view  which  reli- 
gion supplies.  Benjamin  Kidd's  able  w^ork  on 
"  Social  Evolution  "  has  attracted  much  atten- 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  T9 

tion.  It  has  the  merit  of  being  so  clear  in  its 
reasoning,  and  so  lucid  in  its  language,  that  it 
has  already  secured  a  wider  audience  than,  as 
a  rule,  has  been  won  by  works  of  its  class.  It 
has  been  keenly  criticised ;  but  hitherto  its  prin- 
cipal positions  have  not  been  successfully  as- 
sailed. He  maintains  that  our  civilization  is 
founded  upon  an  ultra-rational  system  of  ethics. 
He  bears  repeated  testimony  to  this  immense 
fund  of  altruistic  feeling.  But,  though  he  does 
not  say  it  in  so  many  words,  the  ultra-rational 
that  makes  for  righteousness  manifested  by 
self-surrender  must  be  inspired.  The  writer  is 
in  hearty  sympathy  and  cordial  agreement  with 
almost  all  Mr.  Kidd's  argument;  for  his  book 
has  the  merit  of  being  an  unbroken  and  well- 
sustained  argument.  That  whicli  it  is  the  aim 
of  this  book  to  prove  to  be  the  law  of  the  evo- 
lution in  morals  in  relation  to  the  Christian 
consciousness  is  not  inconsistent  with  his  theory 
of  social  evolution. 

It  is  interesting  that  Professor  Drummond's 
"Ascent  of  Man  "  should  be  almost  contempo- 
rary with  Mr.  Kidd's  '^  Social  Evolution."  This 
work  has  been  severely  criticised  by  the  scien- 
tists,  who    are   not  satisfied  with  its   Christian 


80  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

spirit;  and  it  has  been  even  more  severely 
liandled  by  Christian  critics,  because  of  alleged 
shortcomings.  But  meanwhile  it  has  the  win- 
ning manner  of  putting  things  which  has  made 
Professor  Drummond  so  popular,  and  good 
people  who  read  it  are  not  hurt  by  it.  His 
scheme  of  the  development  of  morals  appears  at 
first  sight  antagonistic  to  Mr.  Kidd's ;  but  they 
are  not  really  so  very  much  opposed.  The 
author  of  ''Social  Evolution"  is  not  so  much 
concerned  about  the  genesis  of  the  moral  idea, 
as  with  the  fact  that  religion  has  moral  sanc- 
tions to  spare,  and  that  she  does  leaven  society 
with  these  ultra-rational  moral  sanctions.  Reli- 
gion can  give  only  that  which  is  in  the  hearts 
of  its  votaries ;  not  in  the  heart  of  each  one, 
or  in  the  hearts  of  all,  but  the  predominant 
thought  and  feeling.  His  altruistic  fund  can 
never  rise  above  the  level  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness ;  or,  since  he  avoids  the  term  Chris- 
tian, let  us  put  it  that  his  altruism,  his 
ultra-rationalism  of  morality,  is  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  religious  consciousness.  It  may  at 
first  sight  seem  a  contradiction ;  but  perhaps  the 
best  way  of  indicating  the  relation  of  these  fa- 
mous books  to  each  other  is  to  note  that  there  is 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF  MORALS  81 

some  reason  for  Professor  Drummond  taking  ex- 
ception to  some  of  Mr.  Kidd's  views,  but  there 
is  no  reason  for  which  Mr.  Kidd  should  oppose 
Professor  Drummond's  book  in  the  interest  of 
his  own  "  Social  Evolution." 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CHRISTIAN    CONSCIOUSNESS    AND   SLAVERY 

The  study  of  the  evolution  of  morals  is  fa- 
cilitated by  taking  some  particular  instance  and 
example.  We  take  human  slavery  because  it 
has  been  universal,  and,  so  far  as  civilization  is 
concerned,  it  has  passed  into  history.  It  is  now 
a  problem  in  ethics  and  in  morals.  In  the  earli- 
est civilization,  there  were  slaves  of  every  kind. 
Sometimes  the  slavery  was  that  of  subject  peo- 
ples engaged  on  great  public  works,  or  that  of 
races  laboring  under  the  burden  of  a  tribute  of 
such  exorbitant  extent  that  they  were  slaves 
indeed  to  their  conquerors  ;  or  it  was  domestic 
servitude.  The  slaves  of  the  ancient  world 
Avere  not  confined  to  that  one  race  so  much 
identified  with  slavery  in  modern  times,  but 
were  captives  taken  in  battle,  purchased  slaves, 
and  the  children  of  slaves,  Avho  inherited  the 
bondage  of  their  parents.  When  the  condition 
of  the  slave  was  favorable,  or  even  happy,  it 
was  because  his  owner  was  kind  or  indifferent, 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND    SLAVERY  83 

and  not  because  he  was  protected  by  liumane 
legislation.  In  the  dawn  of  history  the  laws 
were  made  for  freemen,  and  the  servile  class 
were  wlioUy  at  the  mercy  of  irresponsible  own- 
ers. When  laws  began  to  be  made,  with  regard 
to  slaves,  they  indicate  the  unspeakable  cruelty 
which  preceded  them.  It  was  enacted  that  it 
would  be  wrong  for  a  master  to  put  his  slave  to 
death  wdthout  securing  legal  permission,  l;ut 
that  if  he  happened  to  kill  a  slave  when  chastis- 
ing him,  he  was  to  be  held  innocent.  When  a 
slave  became  sick,  and  in  order  not  to  be  put 
to  the  trouble  of  caring  for  him,  he  publicly 
abandoned  him,  and  the  slave  recovered,  the 
master  could  not  claim  him  again.  These  laws 
show  how  miserable  the  condition  of  the  slave 
was.  Christianity  did  not  do  much  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  slave,  and  the  little  that 
was  done  was  accomplished  very  slowly.  Tlie 
serfdom  of  Europe  was  a  modified  form  of 
bondage,  and  in  the  feudal  system  the  mass  of 
their  retainers  were  the  practical  slaves  of  the 
barons.  Liberty  came  slowly,  not  so  much 
from  servile  insurrection,  as  from  the  growth  of 
cities  and  the  freemen  sheltered  by  their  walls, 
and  from  the  power  that  the  yeomen  learned 


84  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

tliat  they  possessed  when  princes  fought,  or 
barons  were  arrayed  against  the  king,  and  the 
king  against  his  barons. 

When  slavery  came  to  an  end  in  Europe,  it 
was  from  natural  causes.  Neither  church  nor 
state  had  any  convictions  on  the  question.  No 
moral  issue  was  raised ;  and  almost  immediately 
the  pious  and  the  thrifty,  as  well  as  the  adven- 
turer and  the  vagabond,  became  interested  in 
the  slave-trade  to  the  colonies  beyond  the  seas. 
Nor  were  negroes  from  Africa  the  only  victims. 
In  November,  1648,  a  contemporary  authority 
tells  this  story :  "  The  two  charitable  mer- 
chants that  have  bought  four  hundred  Chris- 
tians to  send  be3^ond  the  sea  for  slaves,  were 
brought  before  the  House  of  Lords,  to  show  by 
what  authority  tliey  were  to  transport  them, 
who,  upon  examination,  produced  an  order  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  being  demanded 
what  qualities  they  were  of,  they  answered  that 
they  were  all  common  soldiers  and  Scots,  not 
one  Englishman  among  them  ;  then  says  one, 
it  will  be  enough :  the}^  are  as  much  slaves  as 
ever  they  can  be.  But  what !  Have  they  sold 
none  away  but  Scots?  How  many  hundred 
poor  apprentices  of  London  have  they  sold  per- 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND   SLAVERY  8ej 

petual  slaves  to  the  Turks,  or  sent  to  planta- 
tions where  they  shall  not  be  half  so  well  used 
as  are  here  our  horses  and  oxen !  "  There  is  a 
vein  of  sarcasm  in  this  contemporary  account  of 
the  doings  of  this  famous  Parliament.  It  goes 
on  to  tell  that  these  white  slaves  being  only 
Scots,  and  the  Lords,  not  knowing  but  that 
the  Commons  Avould  sell  them  next,  leave  was 
granted.  Just  before  attending  to  the  specula- 
tion of  these  enterprising  merchants,  the  Com- 
mons sent  a  message  to  the  Lords,  desiring 
their  concurrence  in  sending  the  Catechism  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly  to  the  king  at  Car- 
isbrooke  Castle. 

This  was  the  Parliament  which  defeated  the 
kincr,  who  in  a  few  months  was  to  be  executed. 
It  was  altogether  in  control  of  Puritans,  Inde- 
pendents, and  Presbyterians.  Need  we  be  sur- 
prised at  the  readiness  with  which  the  American 
colonists  in  New  England  and  in  Virginia  ac- 
cepted slavery  as  a  part  of  their  social  system  ? 
This  Parliament,  containing  many  men  of  emi- 
nent piety,  and  composed  almost  wholly  of  those 
who  had  ventured  their  lives  in  this  successful 
struggle  for  civil  liberty  and  for  religious  free- 
dom, is  not  troubled  at  all  about  the  abstract 


86  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

morality  of  slavery ;  but  it  Avas  scarcely  fair  to 
sell  London  apprentices  into  slavery,  because 
these  apprentices  were  their  own  kith  and  kin. 
As  for  those  common  soldiers  and  Scots,  who 
had  been  fio-hting^  on  the  wronq-  side,  that  was 
another  question. 

John  Bacon  of  Barnstable,  Mass.,  died  in 
1731,  leaving  a  "  negro  wench,"  Dinali,  as  a ' 
chattel  to  be  disposed  of  by  will ;  and  this  will 
was  to  the  effect  that  Dinah  should  be  sold,  and 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale  were  to  be  devoted  to 
the  purchase  of  Bibles.  This  in  New  England ! 
And  in  old  England  good  men  gave  God  thanks 
for  the  successful  ventures  of  their  slave-ships 
on  the  African  coasts.  We  smile  at  these  inci- 
dents, and  marvel  at  the  moral  obtuseness  which 
they  indicate  ;  but  not  so  great  a  blot  is  this  on 
the  eighteenth  century  as  is  the  taxation  of  har- 
lots and  of  sellers  of  strong  drink  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  A  late  senator  from  Illinois 
introduced  a  bill  to  legalize  the  education  of 
children  by  the  profits  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
Moses  was  not  a  slave,  but  he  was  of  a  nation 
of  slaves,  whose  freedom  lie  secured ;  and  we  do 
not  know  that  he  had  any  theoretic  objections 
to  slavery  as  a  system,  and  yet  his  statutes  de- 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND    SLAVERY  87 

cree  that  the  price  of  a  dog  or  the  wages  of  sin 
were  not  to  go  into  the  Lord's  treasury.  His 
iBsthetics  are  as  remarkable  as  are  his  ethics. 

There  was  a  time  when  shiver}^  was  con- 
sidered right  by  the  Christian  churches,  and 
by  Christians  as  individuals.  We  can  imagine 
that  the  degradation  of  use  and  wont  made 
the  slaves  themselves  acquiesce  in  the  state  of 
things.  Even  on  moral  grounds  the  man  who 
is  a  slave  cannot  bemoan  the  radical  injustice  of 
his  lot,  so  long  as  he,  without  scruple,  would 
enslave  the  enslaver  if  he  had  the  upper  hand. 
Every  student  of  history  and  of  the  Bible 
knows  that  there  was  a  time  when,  humanly 
speaking,  slavery  in  and  of  itself  was  not  op- 
posed  to  human  v.-  even  to  divine  legislation. 
Just  as  certainly  as  there  was  a  time  when 
every  body  thought  that  slavery  was  right, 
just  as  certainly  there  came  a  supreme  moment 
when  there  came  to  some  soul  the  truth  that 
SLAVERY  WAS  WRONG.  And  of  course  the 
thing  that  is  morally  wrong  cannot  prove  a  per- 
manent advantage  to  the  state,  to  society,  or  to 
the  individual.  Now,  the  question  is,  How  came 
this  new  thought  into  the  world  ?  What  is  the 
genesis  of  it  ?     It  may  be,  and  it  is  frequently 


88  THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

replied,  "  This  is  the  result  of  evolution  in 
morals.  It  comes  from  observation  and  expe- 
rience." Mr.  Kidd  tells  us  that  tlie  altruism 
with  which  society  was  equipped  by.  religion, 
the  ultra-rational  morality,  was  the  axe  that 
was  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree  of  slavery. 
Professor  Drummond  exalts  the  evolution  of 
love,  and  self-sacrifice  for  love's  sake,  and  this 
provided  the  altruistic  feeling  before  which 
slavery  was  doomed. 

It  may  be  granted  that  the  development  or 
evolution  theories  of  these  two  eminent  think- 
ers, as  well  as  the  theories  that  have  been  ad- 
vanced by  Huxley,  Spencer,  and  others,  account 
satisfactorily  for  the  gradual  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  the  slave  ;  but  they  do  not 
account  for  the  reversal  of  the  world's  thought. 
To  own  a  slave  is  right ;  to  own  a  slave  is 
wrong.  This  is  a  new  tiling  in  morals.  Spon- 
taneous generation  in  morals  is  just  as  unthink- 
able  as  is  spontaneous  generation  in  matter.  It 
has  been  the  custom,  both  in  and  out  of  the 
pulpit,  to  compare  the  advances  in  morals  with 
those  discoveries  and  inventions  which  are  pro- 
ducing such  constant  change  upon  the  life  of 
man.     The  changes  in  the  outward  life  are  not 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND   SLAVERY  89 

witliout  their  reflex  action  upon  the  inner  life. 
There  is  a  superficial  reasonableness  in  such 
comparisons.  The  discovery  is  the  finding  of 
the  treasure  which  has  been  lying  in  the  lap  of 
nature,  waiting  the  appropriating  hand  of  man  ; 
and  the  invention  is  the  combination  and  ad- 
justment of  existing  principles  or  laws  to  pro- 
duce a  new  result.  We  may  call  the  new  thing 
in  morals  a  discovery,  and  declare  that  it  has 
always  been  lying  in  the  nature  of  tilings,  and 
in  the  revealed  Word,  waiting  for  the  eyes  that 
were  yet  to  see  it ;  or  we  may  call  it  an  inven- 
tion, and  affirm  that  it  is  in  harmony  with  that 
law  from  Heaven  for  life  on  earth,  to  which  as 
to  a  divine  measure  we  bring  it.  There  is, 
however,  an  essential  difference.  It  is  one  thing 
to  discover  or  to  invent  in  the  physical,  to  detect 
the  law,  or  to  combine  the  laws  to  produce  a 
new  result,  and  quite  another  thing  to  discover 
or  to  invent,  if  such  terms  are  admissible,  the 
truth  which  is  a  direct  and  emphatic  reversal  of 
the  truth  which  has  been  accepted  in  all  time  as 
in  harmony  with  morality  as  a  science.  And 
this  holds  true  whether  or  not  our  system  of 
morality  acknowledges  the  Word  of  God  as  its 
ultimate  standard. 


90  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

We  do  not  know  who  was  tlie  first  to  ntter 
this  new  trutli.  We  do  not  Ivnow  tliat  he  was 
in  a  position  to  reason  from  observation  and 
experience.  It  may  be  maintained  that  abstract 
reasoning  on  theoretic  justice,  excited  l)j  the 
recital  of  experience  on  the  part  of  others,  or  by 
witnessing  the  evils  of  slavery,  might  be  the 
producing  cause.  Is  it  not  nevertheless  true 
that  the  Christian  consciousness,  the  divinity 
in  the  man,  is  the  womb,  the  theatre  of  the  ges- 
tation time  of  this  new  birth  of  truth  ?  Like  the 
Christ  of  extraordinary  parentage,  both  human 
and  divine,  it  is  a  fountain-head  of  good.  This 
new  thing  in  morals  is  not  wholly  made  of 
things  that  do  appear. 

Who  was  the  father  of  this  truth  ?  ^  Who 
can  tell  ?  It  may  be  asked  Avh}^  those  whose 
names  and  memories  are  forgotten  should  be 
chosen  as  the  autliors  of  great  truths?  We  do 
not  know.     We  have  not  yet  mastered  the  prin- 

1  It  may  be  claimed  tliat  moral  births  are  the  begotten  of 
the  times,  and  not  of  the  individual.  Tliis  is  really  no  objec- 
tion. In  the  moral  universe  there  must  always  be  "  A  fulness 
of  time."  The  Christ  has  a  forerunner,  and  disciples  who  ac- 
company and  follow  him.  That  a  new  truth  in  morals  should 
be  revealed  simultaneously  in  widely  separated  localities  does 
not  disprove  its  revelation,  but  a  case  of  simultaneous  revela- 
tion has  not  yet  been  proved." 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND    SLAVERY 


91 


ciples  of  divine  selection  and  election.  We  do 
not  know  for  what  reason  Mnvy  was  chosen  as 
the  mother  of  our  Lord.  We  do  not  know  what 
was  the  nature  or  measure  of  the  fitness  that 
Christ  saw  in  each  of  the  Twelve.  Before  Wil- 
berforce,  Clarkson,  and  Garrison,  are  Anthony 
Benezet,  William  Dellwyn,  and  Granville  Sharp. 
Before  them  are  more  obscure  names. 

Samuel  Sewall  seems  to  have  been  the  first  in 
America   to    denounce    slavery    and    the    laws 
against  witchcraft.     He  was  born  in  England, 
1652,  and  died  in  New  England,  1730.    In  1692 
he  gave  his  official  sanction  to  the  punishment 
of  witchcraft ;  but  five  years  afterwards  he  ac- 
knowledged his  error.     In  1700  he  published  a 
pamphlet,  "  The  Selling  of  Joseph,"  in  which  he 
says  that  there  could  be  'Mio  progress  in  gos- 
pelling"   until  slavery   w^as    abolished.     There 
are  two  points  deserving  attention  in  this  case. 
The  bondage  of  penal  servitude  made  slaves  of 
white  men  in  the  colonies  at  this  time,  and  their 
servitude  excited   a  consideration  and  compas- 
sion which  would  not  be  as  readily  given  to  an 
alien  race  like  the  negro.     We  can  easily  ima- 
gine that  had  the  mixture  of  races  been  impossi- 
ble on  this  continent,  the  slavery  of  the  black 


92         THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

race  miglit  have  continued  for  a  longer  time  be- 
fore its  final  overthrow.  The  English  people  of 
1G48  had  much  more  tender  reo-ard  for  London 

o 

apprentices  than  thej  had  for  common  soldiers 
and  Scots.  When  quadroons  and  octoroons, 
and  even  those  in  whom  the  African  taint  was 
even  still  more  attenuated,  had  to  follow  the 
mother's  fate,  the  moral  offence  became  more 
rank.     It  "  smelled  to  heaven." 

It  is  also  of  special  significance  to  note  that 
Samuel  Sewall  was  just  the  man  in  Avhom  we 
would  expect  a  development  of  the  Christian 
consciousness.  Scholarly,  refined,  and  pious, 
he  used  his  great  "wealth  in  tlie  doing  of  good. 
He  fell  into  the  prevalent  error  regarding  the 
legal  punishment  of  witchcraft ;  but  when  light 
came  to  him  he  publicly  confessed  his  error. 
It  will  be  admitted  by  all,  that  we  have  in  him 
a  man  who  willed  to<  do  the  will  of  God.  Why 
should  not  he  be  the  man  chosen  to  know  the 
teachinor  on  this  matter  ?  To  be  sure,  he  was 
only  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  the 
voice  was  the  result  of  a  divine  persuasion  and 
conviction.  From  1700  to  the  day  when  Lin- 
coln issued  his  famous  proclamation  of  inde- 
pendence and  freedom  for  the  slave,  was  a  long 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND   SLAVERY  93 

time.  Nay,  it  was  a  long  time  from  1700  to 
1792,  when  the  first  legal  action  in  the  direction 
of  manumission  was  attempted  in  the  country 
that  was  the  first  to  free  its  slaves;  but  there 
was  an  unbroken  chain  of  causation,  although 
we  may  not  be  able  to  trace  its  sequence  link 
after  link. 

Who  were  the  predecessors  of  Samuel  Sewall 
in  holding  this  opinion  that  slavery  was  Avrong, 
even  though  they  were  not  moved  to  proclaim  it 
to  all  the  world  ?  or  into  how  many  hearts  did 
questions  and  doubts  come  as  to  the  abstract 
rio'ht  and  wrono-  of  it?  Who  can  tell?  We 
must  beware  of  the  easy  and  unphilosophical 
talk  about  the  thing  that  is  right  in  one  age 
being  wrong  in  another.  Slavery  was  just  as 
much  a  wrong  in  Abraham's  time  as  was  polyg- 
amy ;  but  Abraham  was  not  morally  guilty, 
although  he  was  a  slaveholder  and  a  polyga- 
mist.  The  existence  of  wrong  is  one  thing, 
and  the  innocence  of  ignorant  wrong-doing  is 
quite  another  thing.  We  can  trace  the  stream 
far  back,  but  its  living  source  we  cannot  find. 
Aristotle  affirmed  that  slavery  was  part  of  the 
law  of  nature,  but  he  admitted  that  some  of  his 
contemporaries  denied  this.     But  their  denying 


94  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

that  it  was  part  of  the  hiw  of  nature  does  not 
prove  that  they  regarded  shivery  as  being  im- 
morah^ 

It  was  not  until  1792  that  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced into  tlie  British  House  of  Commons, 
which  had  for  its  aim  the  gradual  extinction  of 
slavery;  and  forty-two  years  elapsed  before  its 
final  extinction  in  Great  Britain.  In  1794  the 
French  Convention  decreed  that  all  slaves  in 
French  territory  should  be  free ;  and  fifty -four 
years  afterwards  slavery  was  finally  abolished 
in  the  dominions  of  France.  Slavery  was  not 
entirely  abolished  in  the  Dutch  colonies  until 
1863.  The  United  States  has  a  unique  place 
with  regard  to  slavery,  which  is  worthy  of  spe- 
cial attention  in  the  study  of  moral  science,  and 
also  in  the  relation  of  the  church  to  moral 
problems.  When  the  agitation  against  this  evil 
Avas  active  in  England  and  in  France,  the  senti- 
ment against  it  in  the  United  States  was  strong^ 
and  full  of  hope.  Washington  declared  that 
there  was  not  a  man  livincr  who  wished  more 

o 

sincerely  than  he  did  to  see  a  plan  adopted  for 
abolishing  slavery,  and  he  showed  his  sincerity 
to  the   end   by  leaving  the  great   body  of    his 

1  See  note  oii  page  90. 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND   SLAVERY  95 

slaves  free.  Jefferson  was  a  slaveholder,  and 
as  early  as  1774  he  said,  ''The  abolition  of 
domestie  slavery  is  the  greatest  object  of  desire 
in  these  colonies."  It  was  he  who  proposed  a 
constitution  for  Virginia,  in  terms  of  wliich 
all  born  after  the  year  1800  were  to  be  free. 
Monroe's  testimony  was  that  slavery  had 
''  proved  prejudicial  to  all  the  States  in  which 
it  existed."  Patrick  Henry  thus  puts  himself 
on  record  :  "  It  would  rejoice  my  soul  that  every 
one  of  these,  my  fellow-beings,  was  emanci- 
pated. .  .  .  We  detest  slavery  ;  we  feel  its  fatal 
effect;  we  deplore  it  with  all  the  earnestness 
of  humanity."  These  are  not  the  sentiments  of 
Northern  men,  but  of  Southern  men  ;  and  need 
it  be  added,  that  these  opinions  of  their  great- 
est men  were  echoed  and  indorsed  by  many 
of  lesser  name  than  they.  After  listening  to 
these  voices,  would  not  any  student  of  history 
have  been  justified  in  coming  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  slavery  in  the  great  Republic  was 
doomed.  Slavery  was  an  evil  inheritance  from 
colonial  times.  The  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence opened  with  a  ringing  sentiment  as  to  the 
freedom  and  equality  of  men,  and  the  posses- 
sion by  all  of  inalienable  rights  and  privileges. 


96  THE   CHBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

It  was  now  a  question  of  wa3^s  and  means ;  but 
tlie  doing  a^^•ay  of  slavery  was  a  foregone  con- 
clusion. Years  of  marvellous  prosperity  fol- 
lowed. The  young  Republic  became  the  great 
Republic ;  but  slaveiy  remained,  and  the  num- 
ber of  the  servile  population  increased  rapidly. 
The  immorality  associated  with  domestic  servi- 
tude was  inevitable  ;  and  as  the  child  followed 
the  class,  or  rather  remained  in  the  class,  of  the 
mother,  the  strange  spectacle  was  witnessed  of 
men  and  women  who  were  three-fourths,  seven- 
eighths,  and  even  lif teen-sixteenths,  white  blood, 
being  bought  and  sold  as  merchandise. 

More  than  half  a  centurj'  of  religious  activity 
followed  alonof  with  this  strano^e  condition  of 
affairs,  and  we  had  religious  denominations  that 
gloried  in  their  orthodoxy  and  in  their  conser- 
vatism, and  a  society  that  was  sensitive  and 
punctilious  on  the  score  of  personal  honor. 
Washington,  Monroe,  Jefferson,  and  Henry  were 
honored  names,  and  the  mention  of  them  ex- 
cited hearty  enthusiasm  in  any  public  assem- 
blage ;  but  their  feelings  and  utterances  about 
slavery  were  ignored  and  forgotten.  As  might 
be  expected,  there  was  a  change  of  front  in  the 
Southern  estimate  of  slavery.     A  distinguished 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND   SLAVERY  97 

Southern  preacher,  who  wielded  more  influence 
in  the  South  than  any  other  man  in  his  profes- 
sion, preached  a  sermon  at  the  end  of  the  year 
1860,  in  which  he  urged  the  maintenance  of 
slavery  for  the  following  reasons  :  — 

(1)  As  a  duty  to  themselves,  because  their 
material  interests   were  bound  up  in  it. 

(2)  As  a  duty  to  their  slaves,  because  the 
negro  was  a  helpless  being,  requiring  Avhite 
protection  and  control. 

(3)  As  a  duty  to  the  world  which  depended 
so  much  on  Southern  cotton. 

(4)  As  a  duty  to  God,  wdio  had  appointed 
slavery,  and  whose  honor  was  impeached,  and 
whose  cause  on  earth  was  imperilled,  by  the 
atheistic  spirit  of  abolitionism.  He  said,  '^  With 
this  institution  assigned  to  our  keeping,  what 
reply  should  we  make  to  those  who  say  that  its 
days  are  numbered  ?  We  ought  at  once  to  lift 
ourselves  intelligently  to.  the  highest  moral 
ground,  and  proclaim  to  all  the  world  that  we 
hold  this  trust  from  God,  to  preserve  it,  and  to 
transmit  it  to  posterity,  with  the  unchallenged 
right  to  go  and  root  itself  Avherever  Providence 
and  nature  shall  carry  it."  In  1864,  the  "Nar- 
rative of   the  State   of   Religion,"  which   it   is 


98  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

the  custom  to  give  before  the  Genenil  Assem- 
blies of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  was  given  to 
the  church  in  the  South,  and  contained  the 
following  passage  :  "  The  long  continued  agita- 
tion of  our  adversaries  has  wrought  within  us 
a  deeper  conviction  of  the  divine  appointment 
of  domestic  servitude.  .  .  .  We  hesitate  not 
to  affirm  that  it  is  the  peculiar  mission  of  the 
Southern  Church  to  conserve  the  institutio*n  of 
slavery,  and  to  make  it  a  blessing  both  to  master 
and  slave."  We  have  no  right  to  question  the 
personal  honesty  of  these  gentlemen,  or  the 
sincerity  of  their  personal  convictions.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  ran- 
cor of  sectional  strife  and  political  feud  fed 
the  fire  of   their  convictions. 

The  political  economist  has  an  argument  of 
quite  a  different  nature.  He  has  figures  to  give 
us  and  stubborn  facts.  Eli  Whitney  invented 
the  cotton-gin  in  1793.  His  invention,  supple- 
mented by  the  inventions  of  Watt,  Hargreaves, 
and  Arkwrio'ht,  converted  slave-holdino-  from 
a  financially  doubtful  into  a  paying  business. 
Slaves  doubled  in  price.  The  cotton  product 
of  1793  was  ten  thousand  bales.  In  1830  it 
was  a  million  bales.     The  scoffer  says  tliat  it 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND    SLAVERY  99 

very  soon  became  appareiit  that  slavery  was  a 
divine  institntion.  While  this  was  the  state 
of  affairs  in  the  South,  the  more  violent  aboli- 
tionists were  taking  the  church  to  task  in  the 
North.  Some  of  them  left  the  church  because 
they  could  not  find  that-  Jesus  or  the  Old  or 
New  Testament  distinctly  forbade  slavery. 
Others  left  because  the  churches  would  not 
openly  espouse  their  cause,  and  many  of  the 
wealthy  conservative  people  threatened  to  leave 
if  the  church  got  mixed  up  in  what  they  claimed 
to  be  a  political  discussion  and  question. 

In  a  subsequent  chapter  the  relation  of  the 
church  to  evolution  in  morals  will  be  treated. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  say  whether  the  North 
or  the  South  was  right.  Nor  do  we  need  to- 
dav  to  go  into  the  merits  of  the  much-debated 
question,  as  to  Avhether  or  not  the  Bible  was  in 
favor  of  slavery.  To  the  oft  repeated  and  in- 
geniously put  arguments  of  Southern  divines, 
the  North  had  its  reply;  and  a  passage  from 
Hunger's  "  Freedom  of  Faith  "  may  be  given, 
which,  while  it  appeared  long  after  slavery 
became  a  dead  issue,  expresses  in  felicitous 
language  the  spirit  of  the  rejoinder  of  North- 
ern Christians  to  their  brethren  of  the  South ; 


100       THE  CIIUISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

'•  Humanly  speaking,  slavery  could  not  be  kept 
out  of  the  Hebrew  conimonwealtli ;  it  was  too 
early  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  but  it  was 
hedged  about  by  strenuous  laws,  all  merciful  in 
their  character,  and  of  such  a  nature  in  their 
operation  that  slave-holding  became  unprofit- 
able, and  the  system  died  out.  Moses,  was 
wiser  than  this  nineteenth  century  of  ours. 
He  sapped  the  life-blood  of  the  institution  by 
wise  statesmanship ;  we  drowned  it  in  a  sea  of 
blood  and  fire,  —  blood  from  a  million  hearts, 
fire  that  touched  the  hearts  of  forty  millions." 
All  tills  is  ti'ue,  and  w^ell  and  eloquently  said  ; 
but  then  it  is  quite  venturesome  to  make  com- 
parisons between  Moses  and  the  nineteenth 
century.  Moses  had  not  to  meet  the  case  of 
Eli  Whitney  and  his  cotton-gin. 

It  is  humiliating  and  suggestive  that  the  line 
of  cleavage  on  this  question  of  slavery  ran 
through  all  branches  of  the  church.  North  and 
South.  As  an  argument  based  on  the  letter  of 
Scripture,  and  even  on  the  spirit  of  it,  or  upon 
all  the  spirit  of  it  that  could  be  reached  by 
argument,  the  position  of  the  South  was  the 
stronger ;  and  yet  they  failed,  not  only  by  for- 
tune of  war,  but  by  the  verdict  of  humanity. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   AND   SLAVEIlY        101 

The  Christian  consciousness  was  against  slaveiy. 
There  was  no  appeal  from  its  final  verdict. 
The  thought  born  in  some  unknown  soul,  To 
own  a  slave  is  icrong,  was  a  living  thing.  The 
Christian  consciousness  of  that  unknown  founder 
and  father  of  abolition  grew  until  nation  after 
nation  broke  the  sliackles  from  men's  limbs. 
Those  who  would  not  bow  to  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness were  ground  in  the  mills  of  God. 

"  The  blood-bought  gold  fell  from  the  Spaniard's  fainting 
hold, 
And  the  Frenchman  sunk  to  his  Haytien  grave, 
Beneath  the  shout  of  the  conquering  slave." 

Dr.  Hunger's  eloquent  words  which  have 
been  quoted  tell  tlie  experience  of  the  United 
States  in  the  mills  of  God.  The  British  Empire 
was  the  first,  and  in  some  respects  the  greatest, 
sinner  of  all  in  the  matter  of  slavery ;  but  its 
repentance  was  manifested,  not  only  by  volun- 
tarily freeing  the  slaves,  but  also  by  taxing 
itself  so  that  the  loss  might  not  fall  altogether 
upon  the  slave-owners,  and  also  by  lier  vigilance 
in  suppressing  the  slave-trade  in  Africa  and 
upon  the  high  seas.  But  it  was  easier  for 
Britain    to    be    virtuous   than   it   was   for    the 


102       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Southern  States.  The  West  India  pLanters 
were  but  an  insignificant  portion  of  the 
Empire,  and  the  British  were  cotton  man- 
ufacturers while  the  Americans  were  cotton 
growers. 


AS  RELATED    TO  INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    103 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS  AS  RELATED 
TO  INTEMPERANCE,  THE  OPIUM  TRADE  AND 
GAMBLING 

While  slavery  affords  an  opportunity  of 
studying  the  Christian  consciousness  as  related 
to  the  evolution  of  morals  as  a  reform  that 
has  been  already,  if  but  recently,  accomplished, 
we  have,  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  as 
a  beverage,  an  example  of  a  new  thing  in 
morals  which  is  yet  subject  to  discussion. 
Presumably  there  never  was  a  time  when 
drunkenness  was  not  considered  by  some  men 
as  a  moral  and  social  blunder  and  impropriety, 
and  the  Word  of  God  has  always  been  ac- 
knowledged as  declaring  it  to  be  a  sin.  But 
there  was  a  comparatively  recent  time  when 
professedly  Christian  communities  were  agreed 
as  to  the  harmlessness  and  sinlessness  of  mod- 
erate drinking  of  intoxicants.  Discreet  exhilara- 
tion, unaccompanied  by  scandal,  was  winked  at. 
A  time  came  when  in  the  Christian  conscious- 


104       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

ness  of  some  soul  was  born  this  new,  absolutely 
new,  truth,  to  make  a  beverage  of  the 
INTOXICANT  IS  WRONG.  The  first  disciples  of 
this  creed  had  a  hard  time  of  it.  They  were 
laughed  at  as  fanatics.  They  could  not  get 
as  favorable  life  insurance  rates  as  moderate 
drinkers  got.  The  medical  profession  was  al- 
most universally  opposed  to  them.  The  brewers 
and  distillers,  re-enforced  by  importers  and 
dealers  in  intoxicants,  form  the  largest  busi- 
ness interest  of  every  civilize.d  country ;  and 
of  course  they  were  all  opposed  to  the  new 
movement.  In  America  and  in  every  country 
of  Europe  one  of  the  larger  sources  of  revenue 
to  the  state  and  to  the  city  was  derived  from 
the  taxation  and  licensing  of  wines,  beers,  and 
spirits ;  and  of  course  the  financiers  of  the 
revenue  departments  Avere  in  a  similar  position 
to  that  in  which  the  silversmiths  of  Ephesus 
found  themselves  on  tlie  occasion  of  Paul's 
visit.  Even  to  this  day  total  abstinence  lias 
made  very  little  progress  except  among  Englisli- 
speaking  peoples.  Our  French  and  German 
cousins  tell  us,  with  too  much  reason  to  make 
the  telling  pleasant,  that  we  needed  the  new 
departure  very  much. 


AS   BELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    105 

Notable  results  have  been  already  accom- 
plished. The  church  as  a  whole,  but  not  with 
all  its  ministers  and  members,  is  on  the  side 
of  total  abstinence.  Eminent  physicians  con- 
tend that  hospitals  conducted  without  the  aid 
of  alcoholic  stimulants  are  just  as  successful 
as  those  that  use  them.  Those  who  hold  this 
opinion  are  yet  in  a  minority,  but  tlie  medical 
profession  as  a  whole  are  opposed  to  the  drink- 
ing customs  of  society.  It  is  a  recognized  evil. 
Every  moralist  lauds  temperance,  but  the  total 
a,bstainer  asserts  that  temperance  was  not  very 
eagerly  advocated  until  total  abstinence  was 
advocated.  The  cry  of  the  more  earnest  social 
reformers  is  that  the  saloon  must  go.  This 
question  has  supplied  sociology  with  much 
matter  for  thought.  Is  it  to  be  license  or  no 
license?  or  if  we  agree  to  license  this  business, 
shall  it  be  a  hio-h  or  a  low  license?  Shall  we 
adopt  local  option,  or  prohibition,  or  the  Gothen- 
burg system?  Is  drunkenness  a  disease,  and 
can  it  be  cured  ?  or  is  it  a  crime,  and  ought 
it  to  be  punished  ?  It  is  a  political  question 
and  a  church  question  as  well  as  a  social 
problem. 

When   we   contemplate   the  number  of  soci- 


106       TUB  CmUSTtAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

eties  and  of  organizations  that  gather  round 
this  theme,  and  when  we  consider  the  hirge 
place  it  occupies  in  political  and  in  social  life, 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  believe  that  in  the 
beginning  of  this  centur}^  there  was  none  of 
it.  Then  minister  and  layman  indulged  in  the 
social  glass,  and  imagined  that  some  stimulant 
was  an  essential  part  of  a  meal.  The  tavern- 
keeper,  the  distiller,  and  the  brewer  might  be, 
and  often  were,  pillars  of  the  church;  while 
keeping  a  public-house  or  saloon  was  as  re- 
spectable a  business  as  was  any  other  retail 
trade  or  handicraft.  In  the  beginning  of  this 
century  many  men  wlio  were  accounted  re- 
spectable, and  who  held  high  positions  in  liter- 
ature and  in  politics,  were  deep  in  their  potations 
and  profuse  in  their  profanity.  Where  and 
when  was  the  beginning,  the  first  Christian 
consciousness  concerning  this  evil  ?  We  cannot 
tell.  Before  all  modern  movements  we  find 
the  Abstemii,  who  could  not  partake  of  tlie 
cup  of  the  Eucharist  on  account  of  their  natural 
aversion  to  wine.  This  natural  aversion  Avas 
in  the  case  of  the  majority  a  mere  physical 
disgust  and  repugnance.  Indeed,  this  is  be- 
yond a  doubt,   although  in  the    case    of  some 


AS  RELATED   TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    107 

the     abstinence     may    have     been     on     moral 
o'l'ounds. 

Even    in    that    intolerant    age    would    men 
shrink  from   making  war  against  a   clear   case 
of  physical  inability.     The   Calvinists,  usually 
credited    with    all    intolerance,    allowed    these 
primitive    abstainers   to   partake   of    the   bread, 
and    merely    touch    the    cup    with    tlieir    lips 
without  swallowing  any  of  its  contents ;  but  the 
Lutherans  declared  that  this  tolerance  of  theirs 
was  neither  more  nor  less  than  profanation.     If 
we  see   in  this   glimpse   of  church   history  the 
generous   forbearance   of  the   creed   which  has 
been   most  accused  of   severity  in   dogma  and 
in  discipline,  do  we  not  also  see  in  the  action  of 
the  Lutherans,  not  only  the   outcome   of   their 
doctrine  of  consubstantiation,  but  also  a  convic- 
tion on  their  part  that  the  will  as  well  as  the 
physical  peculiarity  accounted  for  the  conduct 
of  the  Abstemii? 

The  Nazarites  of  Scripture  were  abstainers, 
but  their  merit  consisted  in  denying  themselves 
in  penance  and  for  purification  that  which  it 
was  quite  lawful  for  other  men  to  use.  We  do 
not  know  when  and  where  the  first  total  ab- 
stainer on  the    grounds   of   morality   and   con- 


108       THE   CIIBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

science  lived,  but  there  must  liave  been  a  first; 
and  when  this  Christian  consciousness  came, 
this  truth  at  once  of  human  and  divine  origin,  a 
ofreater  revolution  bes^an  than  earth  had  wit- 
nessed  since  Jesus  walked  in  Palestine,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Reformation  of  religion. 

As  in  the  case  of  slavery,  the  Bible  and 
the  church  have  been  brought  into  the  con- 
ti-oversy.  Did  our  Lord  make  an  intoxicating 
wine  ?  Did  he  use  fermented  wine  ?  Does 
the  New  Testament  teaching  lead  to  the  prac- 
tice of  total  abstinence  on  the  part  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus?  Or  is  all  that  we  can  say, 
not  that  we  have  positively  found  it  in  the 
Bible,  but  that  the  Bible  does  not  forbid  total 
abstinence?  This  revelation  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  is  in  conformity  with  the  spirit  of 
the  Word  on  this  matter  of  abstinence.  This 
is  all  that  can  be  said.  If  this  or  any  other 
new  thing  in  morals  were  clearly  taught  in  the 
Bible,  and  had  never  been  introduced  to  earth 
because  we  could  not  see  it,  although  it  had 
been  there  all  the  time,  we  might  gain  a  point 
in  debate  by  belittling  our  intelligence  ;  but  in 
point  of  fact,  in  this  case  of  total  abstinence  as 
a  moral  and  Christian  duty,  there  is  as  much 


AS  BELATED    TO  INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    109 

room  for  debate  as  to  what  the  Scriptures  really 
teach  as  there  is  in  the  question  of  slavery. 
There  is  a  very  important  sense  in  which  the 
Christian  consciousness  may  be  regarded  as 
revelation.  By  this  it  is  not  to  be  understood 
that  it  is  of  equal  authority  or  certainty  as  is 
the  Word  of  God,  as  a  rule  of  life  to  all  men,  but 
it  may  be  of  as  much  authority  to  the  individ- 
ual. God  may  teach  a  man  so  that  his  con- 
science is  more  outraged  by  the  sin  of  using 
strong  drink  than  it  is  by  sins  of  which  specific 
mention  is  made,  such  as  frivolity  of  speech; 
or  he  may  be  more  shocked  at  a  man  owning 
slaves  than  at  his  being  untruthful. 

Like  every  great  movement  of  social  re- 
form, this  ''liquor  question,''  as  it  is  familiarly 
known,  is  at  once  social,  religious,  and  political. 
The  parallel  between  it  and  'slavery  is  very 
suggestive. 

(1)  Both  have  come  down  to  us  from  the 
earliest  dawn  of  history.  Noah's  drunkenness 
led  to  the  prophetic  condemnation  of  Canaan  to 
utter  servitude,  to  be  a  "servant  of  servants," 
or,  as  it  may  more  forcibly  be  rendered,  "a 
slave  of  slaves."  One  does  not  know  which  to 
condemn   most   heartily,   the    shamelessness    of 


110       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

the  son  or  the  drunkenness  of  the  father;  but 
all  must  respect  the  severe  and  unsparing  sim- 
plicity of  the  narrative. 

(2)  When  the  master  was  excessively  cruel, 
or  a  man  was  a  noted  drunkard,  human  society 
disapproved,  even  when  it  did  not  punish. 

(3)  The  Bible  declares  drunkenness  to  be  a 
sin,  and  modifies  slavery  with  merciful  and 
ameliorating  provisions. 

(4)  The  Bible  does  not  furnish  a  conclusive 
argument  against  domestic  servitude,  or  against 
that  use  of  intoxicants  which  does  not  reach  the 
stao^e  Avhich  Ave  call  drunkenness. 

o 

(5)  The  Christian  consciousness  has  pro- 
nounced judgment  against  slavery,  and  against 
our  social  drinking   customs. 

May  we  not  hope  and  expect  that  the  com- 
parison may  yet  be  taken  one  step  farther,  and 
we  may  be  able  at  some  future  time  to  add, 
that  the  social  and  convivial  drinking  customs 
are  as  near  extinction  as  is  slaver3^  But  if 
hope  dares  prophesy  for  good,  may  not  also  ex- 
perience prophesy  for  evil?  An  awful  price 
was  paid  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  from  civ- 
ilization. Are  the  civilized  nations  of  to-day 
laying   up   for   themselves   "wrath  against  the 


^18   RELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    Ill 

day  of  wrath"?  Is  it  to  cost  blood  and  tears 
and  toil  and  national  catastrophes  to  free  tlie 
slaves  of  the  saloon  and  of  the  wine-cup? 

Another  illustration  of  the  function  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  is  supplied  by  the 
opium  trade.  We  emphasize  the  word  ''  trade  ;  " 
because  it  is  with  it,  and  not  with  the  opium 
habit,  that  we  have  to  do.  So  far  as  the  haljit 
is  concerned,  much  of  what  we  say  about  drunk- 
enness is  applicable  to  the  opium  habit.  As  a 
trade,  or  as  it  has  come  to  be  generally  known, 
"the  opium  trade,"  is  unique.  It  has  no  exact 
parallel.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to  make  fun 
of  the  vessels  that  sailed  from  Boston  to  the 
African  coast  freighted  with  New  England  rum 
and  with  New  England  missionaries.  It  was 
true,  too  true;  but  the  government  of  the 
United  States  had  not  treaties  with  these  Afri- 
can despotisms  which  compelled  them  to  re- 
ceive the  rum.  Any  chief  could  issue  an  order 
forbidding  any  of  his  subjects  from  buying  a 
drop  of  the  rum;  and  perhaps  if  any  of  these 
chiefs  were  to  declare  the  rum-freighted  ship 
a  contraband,  and  clear  it  out  of  his  port  as  a 
public  nuisance,  the  owners  of  the  ship  and  of 
the  cargo  would  not  get  much  active  sympathy 


112       THE  CHlilSTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

from  the  government  at  Washington.  No  chiss 
of  men  dislike  the  rnm  trade  more  heartily  than 
tlie  missionaries,  and  we  venture  to  assert  that 
no  class  of  men  use  less  of  it  than  they  do. 
The  rum-traders  have  a  manifest  advantage  in 
this  business,  because  the  African  savage  in  his 
natural  condition  is  much  fonder  of  rum  than 
he  is  of  missionaries. 

The  opium  trade  with  China  is  on  an  en- 
tirely different  moral  basis.  By  treaty  rights 
between  the  government  of  Her  Majesty,  the 
Queen  and  Empress,  China  is  compelled  to  re- 
ceive the  opium  ships.  The  Chinese  are  not 
compelled  to  purchase ;  but  their  government 
dare  not  forbid  them  to  buy,  and  so  they  do  buy 
it;  for  the  Chinaman  loves  opium  even  better 
than  the  African  loves  rum.  Chinamen  bewail 
this  importation  of  the  Indian  drug,  not  only  be- 
cause many  of  them  are  sufficiently  patriotic  to 
bewail  the  havoc,  physical,  mental,  and  moral, 
which  the  use  of  opium  is  making  among  the 
Chinese,  but  also  because  there  is  a  native 
opium  business  which  would  "  boom,  "  if  the 
expressive  slang  may  be  excused,  if  the  article 
from  Hindustan  were  excluded.  Missionaries 
from   England  and  America,  and  disinterested 


AS   liELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    113 

European  merchants  and  travellers,  unite  in 
bearing  witness  to  tlie  evils  of  the  opium  habit 
as  witnessed  in  China.  From  platform,  pulpit, 
and  press,  this  trade  is  vigorously  denounced. 
It  is  wrong  by  the  verdict  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. But,  on  the  other  side,  there  is  the 
Devil's  argument  that  a  bargain  is  a  bargain, 
business  is  business,  and  a  treaty  is  a  treaty. 
Tlie  ao-ricultural  interests  of  Hindustan  must 
not  be  sacrificed.  East  India  merchants  must 
not  be  ruined.  We  are  told  by  the  apologists 
of  this  infernal  traffic,  that  the  evils  of  opium 
have  been  exaggerated ;  that  if  it  was  not  sent 
from  India,  it  would  be  sent  from  somewhere 
else  ;  and  that  the  Dutch  or  the  French  would 
get  the  business  ;  or  that  the  stopping  of  the 
traffic  from  India  would  do  no  permanent  good, 
for  the  Chinese]  would  soon  raise  an  inferior,  and 
perha[)S  a  more  injurious,  opium  for  themselves. 
Meanwhile,  tlie  moral  and  manly  fibre  of 
Cliina  is  strangely  weak,  as  recent  events  seem 
to  prove  ;  and  while  it  would  be  a  case  of  spe- 
cial pleading  to  ascribe  the  pitiful  exhibition 
that  China  li;io  made  in  her  war  with  Japan  to 
the  prevalence  of  the  opium  habit,  who  can  deny 
that    thio   baneful   dru^  has   had  more   than  a 


114        THE   CHlilSTIAN   COJ^SCTOUSNESS 

little  to  do  witli  that  nervelessness,  dishonesty, 
incompetence,  and  cowardice  which  seem  to 
prevade  all  ranks  and  all  classes  in  China. 

We  call  the  Cliristian  consciousness  in  this 
case  "  enlightened  public  sentiment."  This  is 
a  good  phrase.  We  have  no  objections  to  it; 
but  we  believe  that  the  torch  which  enlightens 
is  grasped  by  the  liand  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. It  is  interesting  as  a  problem  in 
morals  to  study  the  attitude  of  Christian  Eng- 
land in  this  matter.  It  may  be  ventured  as  an 
undeniable  fact,  that  from  the  Empress  of  India 
down  to  the  humblest  in  the  empire,  there  is 
searcliing  of  heart  in  tliis  matter.  How  long 
will  it  take  to  shame  the  government  into  doing 
right?  It  has  got  to  come.  When  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  is  persistently  despised,  it 
may  become  tlie  hammer  of  God  which  breaks 
those  who  will  not  bend. 

The  function  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
is  also  well  illustrated  in  the  attitude  of  Christ- 
endom to  gambling.  At  this  point  it  may  be 
well  to  anticipate  a  criticism  which  may  be 
made,  and  which  can  be  put  very  strongly.  It 
may  be  charged  that  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness is  credited  with  too  much  power  in  social 


AS   BELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    115 

evolution.  It  may  be  said  that  we  can  imagine 
the  case  of  a  social  order  in  which  Christianity- 
is  not  recognized  coming-  to  the  conclusion  that 
gambling  was  injurious  to  the  man  or  tribe  or 
state.  The  Indian  tribes  of  North  America  are 
notorious  and  inveterate  gamblers.  The  fre- 
quenter of  Monte  Carlo  cannot  surpass  the 
Indian  in  the  calmness  witli  which  he  stakes 
and  loses  his  last  dollar.  The  Chinaman  is  also 
a  gambler  of  the  persistent  and  seemingly  in- 
curable type.  Missionaries  among  these  peoples 
have  to  insist  upon  their  converts  abandoning 
this  vice,  as  being  foolish,  immoral,  and  non- 
Christian.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and 
his  clergy,  great  and  small,  have  a  similar  task ; 
and  if  Dame  Rumor  does  not  misrepresent  the 
existing  condition  of  social  life,  they  need  to 
beo-in  with  those  of  their  own  order  who  think 
there  is  nothing  wrong  in  playing  whist  or  any 
other  game  for  an  insignificant  stake,  merely  to 
give  some  interest  to  their  evening's  amusement. 
Our  Indian  chief,  having  his  own  comfort 
and  the  good  of  his  tribe  at  heart,  begins  to  do 
some  serious  thinking.  He  sees  that  the  win- 
ners are  wasteful,  and  that  the  losers,  minus 
their  ponies,  and  even  their  blankets,  are  very 


116       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

wretched.  Bitter  quarrels,  wliich  weaken  the 
tribe,  too  often  arise.  And  so  he  comes  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  will  put  his  foot  down 
on  gambling,  and  will  set  a  good  example  by 
himself  ceasing  to  play  games  of  chance  for  any 
stake,  great  or  small.  In  all  this  tliere  is  not 
even  religious  consciousness  ;  for  his  religion, 
whatever  it  is,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  mat- 
ter. Nor,  while  it  improves  what  may  be 
called  the  morals  of  his  tribe,  is  there  any  moral 
sense  on  his  part  of  abstract  right  and  wrong  ? 
We  may  well  suppose  that  our  dusky  warrior  is 
not  troubled  with  any  conscience  or  ideas  or 
convictions  about  "the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number."  He  has  his  own  comfort  in 
view,  and  nothing  else.  He  is  a  utilitarian,  pure 
and  simple.  It  is  evident  to  him,  if  he  suc- 
ceeds in  suppressing  gambling,  that  in  benefiting 
himself  he  has  benefited  others ;  but  though 
pleased  at  this,  it  is  not  for  this  that  he  has  un- 
dertaken this  reform.  We  may,  with  certain 
philosophers,  follow  the  development  of  the 
moral  idea  in  this  untutored  savage.  He  marks 
the  improvement  of  tribal  affairs  with  satisfac- 
tion. He  sees  the  good  that  he  has  accomplished. 
He    is   a   man,  if  a  savage ;    and   he    wonders 


AS  BELATED    TO  INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    117 

whetlier  there  is  not  a  way  in  which  other  cry- 
ing evils  may  be  suppressed.  We  are  willing 
to  grant  all  this,  but  we  are  not  able  to  produce 
any  instance  of  the  working  out  of  it. 

We  find  a  condition  of  sentiment  and  of 
practice  among  Christian  people.  It  is  with 
this  that  at  present  we  have  to  do.  Lotteries 
were  once  highly  resjDCctable.  Now  they  are 
denied  the  privileges  of  the  United  States 
Mail.  Our  Capitol  was  built  in  part  by  lot- 
tery schemes,  in  which  the  people  in  general, 
and  the  Federalists  in  particular,  had  a  promi- 
nent part.  Church  fairs  in  America  and  ba- 
zaars in  England  were  noted  and  ridiculed  for 
their  lottery  schemes.  The  schoolboy  risked 
liis  marbles,  the  poor  man  his  coppers,  and  the 
rich  man  his  gold,  in  miscellaneous  betting,  or 
in  games  which  might  be  pure  chance,  or  skill, 
or  a  combination  of  skill  and  chance.  Perhaps 
this  vice  was  never  more  rampant  than  it  is 
in  England  and  America  to-day.  It  has  placed 
its  baneful  grasp  on  college  sports,  on  athletic 
games  in  general;  and  the  horse-racing  of  to-day 
is  the  saturnalia  of  the  gambler  and  the  book- 
maker, who  is  not  only  a  gambler  himself,  but 
a  pander  to  the  vices  of  others.     When  a  rich 


118       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

American   and    a   prince    of    England   have    a 
yacht-race  for  five  hnndred  pounds,  it  is  a  tri- 
fling stake  for  the  deep,  well-lined  purses  of  the 
contestants.     It  is  true  that  they  are  not  in  it 
for  money,   but  for  glory.      The   paltry   stake 
may  be,  as  it  often  is,  given  by  the  winner  to 
be   divided   among  the   crew   of  the  victorious 
vessel ;  but  the  principle  of  the  game  of  chance 
is  there.     The  card-party,  in  which  there  is  no 
playing  for  stakes,  but  where  the  host  and  host- 
ess give   prizes  to   the   winners,  has  in  it   the 
element  of  gambling.     Wlien  Ave  are  told  that 
many  of  the  transactions  on  the  stock  exchange, 
the  cotton   exchange,  the   corn    exchange,   and 
other  commercial  centres,  partake  of  the  nature 
of  gambling  —  are  gambling,  pure  and  simple, 
we  cannot  doubt  it.      When  lambs  are-  shorn, 
and  successful  corners  entail  suffering  on  thou- 
sands, and  successful  bulls  or  bears  push  their 
rivals  to  the  wall,  and  clean  them  out  as  thor- 
oughly as  ever  Bedouin  of  the  desert  despoiled 
the  luckless  traveller,  or  border  baron  or  high- 
land raider  cleaned  out  the  castle  and  cattle- 
yard  of  his  foe,  why  should  we  not  with  Huxley  ^ 
say,  "In  my  belief  the  innate  qualities,  physi- 

1  Evolution  and  Ethics,  p.  13. 


AS   Ji ELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.     119 

cal,  intellectual,  and  moral,  of  our  nation  liave 
remained  substantially  the  same  for  the  last 
four  or  five  centuries,"  or,  as  he  puts  it  in  the 
Romanes  Lecture  of  1893,  "  If  there  is  a  gener- 
alization from  tlie  facts  of  human  life  which  has 
the  assent  of  tlioughtful  men  in  every  age  and 
countr}',  it  is  tliat  the  violator  of  ethical  rules 
constantly  escapes  the  punishment  which  lie 
deserves ;  that  the  wicked  flourishes  like  a 
green  bay  tree,  while  the  righteous  begs  his 
bread;  that  the  sins  of  the  father  are  visited 
upon  the  cliildren ;  that,  in  the  realm  of  nature, 
ignorance  is  punished  just  as  severely  as  wilful 
wrong ;  and  that  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
innocent  beings  suffer  for  the  crime  or  the  unin- 
tentional trespass  of  one."  It  may  be  remarked 
in  passing  that  these  eloquent  words  state  the 
case  very  strongly  for  that  future  state  in 
which  the.  unredressed  wrongs  of  earth  shall 
be  riglited,  and  the  everlasting  truth  shall  be 
vindicated.  But  while  thoughtful  men  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America  justly  regard  the  prev- 
alence of  the  gambling  spirit  as  being  a  menace 
alike  to  social  order  and  to  public  virtue,  there 
are  signs  of  promise  and  tokens  of  good.  Tlie 
Christian  consciousness  has  been  aroused.     Le- 


120     THE  cnnisTiAN  consciousness 

gislation  has  attempted  to  suppress  or  to  keep 
in  check  tliis  growing  evil. 

-^  It  is  remarkable  how  very  little  there  is  in 
the  Scriptures  bearing  directly  on  this  vice.  In 
this  respect  it  is  in  the  same  position  as  is  the 
use  of  alcoholic  drinks  or  the  owning  of  slaves. 
Good  people  gamble  in  an  honorable  way,  ac- 
cording to  their  estimate  of  honor,  and  they 
do  so  to-day,  without  suspecting  themselves  of 
wrong  doing.  The  young  ladies  who  taught 
in  the  Sunday-school  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  successful  disposing  of  lottery  tickets 
at  the  church  fair.  They  sighed  and  groaned 
over  the  heartless  Roman  soldiers  who  cast  lots 
for  the  seamless  coat  of  Clirist,  the  Crucified,^ 
and  they  disposed  by  lot,  fifty  cents  each,  of 
a  handsome  set  of  furs.  The  prize  package,  the 
guess  cake,  and  the  New  Orleans  lottery  differ 
in  degree,  but  not  in  kind.  In  many  States 
these  things  are  forbidden  to-day  by  legislation  ; 
and  in  quarters  where  there  is  no  terror  of  the 
law,  the  church  and  an  ever-growing  number  of 
Christian  men  and  women  know  that  the  thing 
which  their  fathers  thought  right  and  proper  is 
wrong  —  utterly   and   forever  wrong.     We    do 

1  John  xix.  24. 


AS  RELATED    TO   INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.     121 

not  know  where  this  thouglit  was  born,  we  do  not 
know  who  was  the  first  to  utter  the  everhast- 
ing  yea  and  nay  concerning  it.  The  genesis 
of  the  new  spiritual  life  in  man  the  unrerjen- 
erate  is  the  same  in  mode  as  is  the  birth  of 
a  new  truth  in  man  the  regenerate.  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest 
the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence 
it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is  every 
one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit."  ^  Gambling  is 
doomed  so  far  as  the  moral  sentiment  and  the 
legislation  wliicli  the  Christian  consciousness 
can  secure  will  doom  it.  The  saloon  is 
doomed.  It  and  the  gambling-hell  must  go 
the  way  of  the  slave-mart  and  the  slave-ship. 
The  spiritual  forces  whicli  are  to  fight  the  good 
fight  have  been  born  into  the  world.  / 

A  pleasant  story  is  told  of  the  late  Profes- 
sor Proctor,  which,  however,  we  have  only  by 
hearsay.  At  a  Boston  conversazione  he  was 
asked  by  one  of  Boston's  fair  and  learned 
daughters,  "  Professor,  what  is  the  law  of  grav- 
itation ?  "  "  Madam,"  he  replied,  "  the  law  of 
gravitation  is  the  will  of  God."  Tlie  Chris- 
tian   consciousness    in    its    last  analysis  is  the 

^  John  iii.  8. 


122       TUE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

will    of    God    formulated   by    men    chosen   of 
God. 

It  need  scarcely,  be  said  that  these  three 
moral  and  social  movements  in  society  and  in 
church  life  and  work  are  not  the  only  devel- 
opments in  morals  that  might  have  been 
chosen.  For  example,  following  a  similar  train 
of  reasoning,  one  can  study  the  evolution  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  concerning  cruelty 
to  animals,  the  fighting  of  animals  for  sport, 
pugilism,  the  duel,  and  war  between  nations. 
Then,  there  are  other  great  movements  which 
are  not  yet  w^ithin  the  field  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  ;  but,  reasoning  from  analogy,  they 
will  yet  find  their  expounder  and  their  place. 
In  this  category  we  place  the  relation  of  labor 
and  capital,  the  solution  of  the  various  forms 
of  social  unrest  and  discontent  which  find  ex- 
pression in  socialism,  anarchy,  and  communism. 
If  we  recommended  prayer,  and  a  devout  wait- 
ing for  the  light  of  God,  as  an  aid  to  the 
solution,  many  modern  philosophers  would  join 
liands,  or  rather,  would  join  voices,  with  anar- 
chist and  socialist  in  laughing  us  out  of  doors. 
Even  United  States  senators  have  been  found 
who  did  not  believe   in    uniting    religion   with 


AS  RELATED    TO  INTEMPERANCE,  ETC.    128 

politics.  But  there  was  a  Christian  as  well 
as  a  free-thinking  abolition,  and  there  were 
Christian  slaves  as  full  of  trust  as  of  ignorance ; 
but  they  willed  to  do  the  will  of  God  as  far  as 
they  knew  it,  when  they  sang :  — 

"'Way  down  Moses 

'  Way  down  to  Egypt  land, 
And  tell  old  Pharaoh 
To  let  my  people  go." 

It  had  not  the  ring  of  Miriam's  song  by  the 
Red  Sea  shore  ;  but  it  was  a  cry  from  the 
heart.  There  was  and  is  Christian  temperance, 
and  women  whom  the  drink  curse  has  bruised 
and  broken  during"  the  centuries  are  in  the  van. 

There  are  many  honest  social  reformers  filled 
with  the  anti-gambling  spirit,  who  are  not  ac- 
tive Christians,  or  who  may  not  be  Christians  at 
all ;  but  men  of  faith  and  prayer  are  in  the 
forefront  of  the  battle.  Spiritual  forces  have  to 
be  accounted  for  in  the  development  of  morals. 
It  is  easy  to  try  to  turn  "  Sunday  School  poli- 
tics "  into  ridicule,  and  it  is  easy  to  sneer  at 
Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor 
reformers  ;  but  the  future  is  on  their  side.  It  is 
a  simple  fact  of   history,  that  great  moral  move- 


124       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

ments  have  sometimes  been  liid  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  have  been  revealed  unto 
babes.^  This  was  the  opinion  of  Jesus,  the 
Prince  of  moral  and  social  reformers,  those  who 
will  not  call  him  Lord  being  judges. 

1  Matt.  xi.  25. 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CHURCH      125 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    ATTITUDE    OF     THE    CHURCH    TO    EVOLU- 
TION    IN    MORALS 

The  attitude  of  the  cliurch  to  many  of  the 
o-reat  moral  developments  of  history  is  per- 
plexing  to  many  minds.  If  there  is  a  Chris- 
tian consciousness,  if  these  new  moral  births 
are  indeed  of  divine  and  human  parentage,  why 
should  they  have  received  such  unaccountable 
greeting  from  the  church,  which  professes  to 
be  the  representative  on  earth  of  the  divine, 
the  supernatural?  The  objector  of  to-day  is 
ready  to  tell  the  church  and  its  ministers 
that  they  do  not  come  from  any  unseen  holy 
of  special  knowledge  or  power  or  insight. 
There  is  a  science,  and  there  is  a  secularism, 
which  says,  ''  You  do  not  originate  anything 
in  morals;  true,  your  Bible  has  usually  fitted 
the  times,  but  it  followed,  it  did  not  lead,  the 
grand  march  ;  you  have  never  taken  the  initial 
steps  in  any  of  the  great  relorms,  moral  and 
social;  you   are   never   found  in   the  van  until 


126       TEE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

observation,  experience,  and  experiment  liave 
proven  this  or  that  reform  to  be  the  coming 
thing  in  morals ;  then,  but  not  till  then,  you 
are  willing  to  become  its  apostles.  You  do  not 
discover  that  this  new  thing  is  in  harmony 
with  your  Bible  and  your  creed  until  by  its 
own  merits  and  its  own  success  it  has  proved 
its  right  to  live.  The  church,  the  accredited 
ambassador  of  heaven,  ought  to  be  the  first 
to  recognize  the  heavenly  Child;  but  she  is 
not.  These  thincrs  —  and  moral  truths  are 
things  just  as  much  as  material  substances  are 
—  were  evolved  by  a  natural  process  of  growth, 
by  the  law  of  their  being.  When  Paul  said 
that  things  which  were  seen  were  not  made 
of  things  which  do  appear,  he  was  not  only 
unphilosophical,  he  was  meaningless."  Such 
is  the  position  taken  to-day  by  many  eminent 
men  in  Europe  and  America.  We  find  it  in 
newspaper  and  magazine.  It  is  on  tlie  lecture- 
platform,  and  has  begun  to  invade  the  pulpit. 

We  are  told  to  take  the  question  of  slavery 
as  an  instance  and  example.  To-day  almost 
all  thoughtful  men  admit  that  slavery  is  a 
moral  and  social  injustice ;  and  injustice  is  sin 
against  society,  even  if   there   be   no  personal 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF   THE   CHUllCII       127 

God  against  whom,  and  in  whose  sight,  we 
can  sin.  Why  did  it  take  so  many  centuries 
of  Christian  culture  to  find  out  this  truth? 
How  comes  it  that  the  expounders  of  this 
word  of  God  did  not  discover  the  grand  truth 
long  ago,  and  proclaim  it  from  every  platform 
and  pulpit  and  mountain  top?  Not  only  Avas 
the  discovery  of  this  new  departure  in  the 
life  of  the  world  not  due  to  ministers  of 
religion,  but  after  the  accursed  thing  was 
bravely  condemned  by  the  heroic  fathers  and 
founders  of  abolition,  ministers  of  religion  de- 
nounced them,  or  took  refuge  in  that  neu- 
trality which  shelters  the  coward  as  well  as 
the  sage,  or  gave  but  a  faint-hearted  support 
until  the  thing  had  vindicated  its  own  exis- 
tence, and  demonstrated  to  the  Avorld  that  it 
was  indeed  a  moral  army  on  the  march,  des- 
tined to  move  over  the  land  and  over  the  sea. 
So  says  the  world ;  and  though  the  world  exag- 
gerates, it  is  not  altogether  wrong. 

Let  a  glance  be  taken  at  tlie  total  absti- 
nence movement.  While  we  may  and  do  differ 
very  much  as  to  the  way  in  which  we  are  to 
fight  this  drink  curse,  it  is  a  growing  opinion 
that   the   drinking  habit,   even   in   moderation, 


128       THE   CIlItlSTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

in  a  moral  and  social  evil.  But  the  world 
afi&rnis  that  we  have  not  to  thank  the  church 
or  the  Bible  for  this  growing  sentiment  and 
public  judgment.  Only  after  this  thing  in 
morals  had  vindicated  its  own  existence,  and 
demonstrated  to  the  world  that  it  was  one  of 
the  coming  things  in  social  science,  did  the 
church  take  hold  of  it,  and  prove  to  the  world 
that  the  Bible  was  on  the  side  of  this  new 
movement.  When  the  air  was  thick  with 
such  charges,  need  we  wonder  that  they  were 
foi-mulated  into  such  shape  as  :  — 

(1)  These  things  which  are  7iow  seen,  tliese 
great  facts  in  morals,  have  been  made  or  evolved 
out  of  things  Avhich  do  appear  ;  tliere  is  no  su- 
pranatural  factor  in  their  evolution ;  they  have 
no  divine  parentage. 

(2)  The  church  has  followed  these  new 
movements  at  a  discreet  distance,  but  has 
never  led  the  van  in  their  promulgation. 

These  are  grave  charges  ;  and  we  have  but 
to  read  the  history  of  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment in  Britian  and  in  America,  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  temperance  movement,  in  order  to 
make  frank  confession  that  the  charges  are  not 
altogether  groundless. 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF   THE   CllUltCII       129 

There  is,  however,  a  great  deal  to  be  said 
in  defence  of  the  church  :  — 

(1)  The  church  has  been  misrepresented, 
and  lier  backwardness  in  moral  movements 
has  been  exao-crerated.  The  church,  more  es- 
pecially  since  the  Reformation,  has  been  the 
warm  friend  and  advocate  of  all  moral  move- 
ments, even  granting  that  she  has  been  some- 
what slow  in  recocrnizino-  the  new.  In  Enoiand 
and  in  America,  the  fight  for  civil  liberty  was 
won  by  virtue  derived  from  the  previous  train- 
ing in  the  struggle  for  religious  freedom.  Be- 
fore the  church  as  a  body  moves,  her  individual 
members  have  been  active  in  all  high  enter- 
prises and  in  all  pioneer  work ;  and  the  men 
who  have  been  the  high  priests,  and  sometimes 
the  martyrs,  of  social  progress,  have  been,  in 
many  cases,  devout  Christians.^ 

1  Much  of  the  suffering  endured  by  the  early  Puritans  in 
England  was  in  the  cause  of  moral  and  social  reform;  but 
these  reforms  were  always  exalted  into  religious  tenets.  An 
Oxford  man  named  Pi-ynne,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  published  a  huge  unreadable  sort  of  book  of 
one  thousand  quarto  pages,  against  theatres,  dancing,  mas- 
querades, and  women  actors.  He  did  not  spare  the  queen,  but 
had  sundry  reflections  upon  her  frivolities.  To-day  she  would 
not  be  called  a  specially  frivolous  woman.  He  was  condemned 
to  expulsion  from  Oxford  and  from  Lincoln's  Inn,  fined  five 
thousand  pounds,  placed  in  the  pillory  at  Westminster  and  at 


130       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOWSNESS 

(2)  There  is  a  human  as  well  as  a  divine 
side  to  the  church.  It  sometimes  happens  that 
her  fniances  and  material  well-being  are  in  the 
hands  of  men  not  remarkable  for  personal  piety. 
A  church  edifice  ordinarily  represents  not  only 
a  communion  roll,  but  also  a  society,  trustees, 
pewholders,  etc.,  who  may  not  all  be  Christians 
in  the  higher  sense  of  that  word.  Zeal  usu- 
ally welcomes  sacrifice,  but  worldly  prudence 
shrinks  from  and  frowns  ;  on  this  uncomfort- 
able and  unmanageable  zeal.  Need  we  wonder 
that  the  human  sometimes  impedes  the  progress 
of  the  divine. 

(3)  The  church  is  a  huge  body.  Denomina- 
tions are  large  bodies,  and  it  is  the  law  of  such 
bodies  to  move  slowly.  The  fiery  apostle  runs 
through  the  world,  and  is  indignant  if  every 
sleeper  is  not  awakened  by  his  passing  trumpet- 
blast.  His  impatience  is  natural,  but  nature 
is  sometimes  wise  and  sometimes  foolish.     Re- 

Cbeapsidc.  His  ears  were  cut  off,  his  cheeks  and  forehead 
hranded  with  hot  irons.  They  burned  his  offending  vol-nne 
so  literally  under  his  nose  that  he  was  nearly  suffocated  with 
the  smoke;  and  to  end  all,  they  imprisoned  him  for  life. 

Others  were  treated  with  similar  cruelty;  and  his  Grace, 
Archbishop  Laud,  thanked  the  lords  of  the  Star  Chamber  for 
iheir  just  and  honorable  sentence  upon  these  men,  and  re- 
gretted that  he  could  not  resort  to  more  thorough  measures. 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF   THE  CUUIICII      131 

dining  elephants  take  a  much  longer  time  to 
rise  than  reclining  mice  take.  The  church  is 
an  army,  not  a  mob.  It  is  a  deliberative  as- 
sembly even  more  than  it  is  an  army.  By 
the  very  necessity  that  is  laid  upon  her  to 
preserve  peace  within  her  own  borders,  and 
to  do  no  injury  to  the  consciences  of  her 
members,  a  new  moral  movement  may  be 
^Yell  under  way  before  the  church  with  har- 
monious and  united  ranks  can  join  the  grand 
march  of  progress. 

(4)    The  church  is  an  aged  body ;  and  in  so- 
cial, political,  and  ecclesiastic  affairs,  the  old  are 
inclined  to  be  conservative.      The  youngest  sect 
is  usually   the    most    radical.     Those   religious 
bodies  that  aspire   to  be   permanently   radical, 
either    in   dogma   or   in   formula,    cannot  make 
much  impression    upon   society.     The   average 
man   cannot    grow  old    comfortably  in   a  com- 
munion  that   refuses    to    grow    old   with   him, 
and  comfort  is    to    age   what  excitement  is  to 
youth.     There    is    much    current    folly    about 
preaching  to  specific  classes  and   conditions   of 
people.      Preach   so    as    to    attract   the    young 
people,  especially   the    young    men.      I    appre- 
hend that  Paul  was  all  things  to  all  men,  not 


132       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

by  preacliing  to  young  people  on  courtship,  or 
on  the  ethics  of  the  Olympian  games,  or  on 
the  morals  of  the  cliariot  race,  but  by  seizing 
the  common  denominator  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  by  holding  it  forth  —  tlie  word  of  life  and 
of  power.  Socially  the  true  function  of  the 
church,  is  to  maintain  a  certain  moral  standard, 
spiritually  its  true  mission  is  to  hold  forth 
the  word  of  life.  The  same  word  that  com- 
forts age  should  stimulate  youth.  The  church 
is  a  home,  not  a  music  hall ;  a  teacher,  not  a 
caterer.  Tlie  church  that  goes  into  the  dime- 
show  business,  and  the  catering  for  profit 
business,  reaps  present  and  partial  success, 
and  tlie  price  that  she  pays  for  it  is  —  ultimate 
failure.  In  this  modern  tendency,  however, 
we  have  simply  a  reaction  from,  and  rebellion 
against,  the  churcli  of  history,  which  has  in- 
variably been  found  at  the  opposite  extreme. 
The  church  has  very  frequently  resembled  an 
aged  father  who  instils  lofty  principles  into 
his  children.  He  himself  has  made  them 
daring  and  progressive,  and  yet  he  trembles 
and  doubts  and  fears  when  they  begin  to 
manifest  his  training  of  them  in  some  unex- 
pected  direction.     It   is   one    thing  to   be   con- 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF  THE   CHURCH      133 

servative,  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  boast 
in  the  semper  idem.  Every  true  churcli  is 
conservative  ;  every  false  system,  in  its  ever- 
Lasting  certainty  concerning  itself,  claims  this 
attribute  of  Almighty  God  —  the  unchanging. 
(5)  The  prime  function  of  the  church  is  the 
teacliing  and  nourishing  of  that  enthusiasm 
for  God  and  for  humanity  which  leavens  so- 
ciety with  spiritual  influences.  This  is  ac- 
complished by  the  regeneration  of  individuals 
as  such.  The  advocacy  of  any  particular  item 
in  moral  or  social  reform,  though  not  to  be 
neglected  or  ignored,  is  neither  her  first  nor 
her  finest  ofiice-Avork.  It  is  a  significant  fact, 
that,  though  some  hideous  social  abuses,  and 
some  disfrustina  vices  which  it  were  shame 
to  name,  were  common  in  the  days  of  our 
Lord,  he  did  not  give  his  apostles  special 
instructions  to  make  a  crusade  against  them. 
Tliey  were  to  proclaim  the  coming  of  the 
kinofdom  of  God.  The  lio^lit  Avas  to  cliase 
the  darkness.  The  expulsive  power  which  a 
supreme  affection  exercises  was  to  be  demon- 
strated. Moses  gave  manna.  The  Christian's 
manna  is  everywhere,  and  Christ  gives  him 
leaven.      The    church    is    not   a   knight-errant 


134       THE   CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

running  a  tilt  at  this  abuse  and  at  that,  al- 
though she  delights  in  her  soldiers  doing  with 
their  might  what  their  hands  find  to  do.  She 
is  an  army  on  the  march ;  and  when  certain 
guerillas  for  good  abuse  her  for  not  march- 
ing with  them,  she  replies,  "  He  that  is  not 
against  me  is  for  me."  She  is  a  sage  incul- 
cating the  principles  that  lie  at  the  root  of 
justice  and  freedom. 

Just  complaint  is  also  made  that  the  church 
does  not  reprove  the  transgressions  of  the  in- 
dividual sinner  as  she  should,  and  as  she  did 
in  days  gone  by.  We  are  told  that  it  is  an 
army  so  voluntary  that  it  can  keep  together 
only  by  relaxing  discipline.  We  admit  that 
the  church  is  a  little  Aveak-kneed.  The  bond- 
age of  the  pulpit  is  not  all  a  myth.  But  it 
must  be  admitted  that  if  she  is  not  as  whole- 
somely vigorous  as  she  might  be  on  moral 
issues,  she  makes  up  for  it  by  her  keen  vigi- 
lance on  dogmatic  issues.  In  fact,  there  is  a 
tendency  in  churches  as  there  is  in  certain 
individuals  to  make  up  for  looseness  of  life 
by  rigidity  of  belief.  Tliirty  years  ago  Scot- 
land had  an  nnhaj^py  notoriety  for  intemper- 
ance   and   for   her   statistics    of   bastardj^,    and 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF  THE   CHURCH      135 

the  Southern  States  had  all  tlie  moral  turpi- 
tude which  slavery  entails  ;  and  yet  both  were 
orthodox  of  the  orthodox  so  far  as  dogma 
was  concerned.  But  after  all  the  true  work 
of  the  church  is  not  so  much  the  cultivation 
of  a  keen  scent  for  individual  heresy  and  for 
individual  transgression,  as  it  is  to  rouse  the 
intellect  of  humanity,  to  quicken  the  con- 
science of  humanity,  and  to  renew  the  heart 
of  humanity. 

(6)  Every  moral  movement  has  its  environ- 
ment. The  politician,  the  economist,  and  the 
socialist  may  all  be  claiming  it  or  repudiating 
it.  Is  it  not  fair  that  every  such  innovation 
or  change  should  have  to  struggle  into  a  lusty 
manhood,  and  literally  prove  itself  to  be  a 
child  of  God,  before  the  church  opens  her  doors 
of  welcome  and  of  adoption?.  Almost  uncon- 
sciously the  church  has  treated  principles  just 
as  she  treats  the  individuals  who  seek  her 
fellowship.  Men  are  not  received  into  a  church 
because  there  is  an  expectation,  or  even  a  prob- 
ability, that  in  some  future  they  shall  prove 
to  be  or  will  become  worthy,  good,  and  true; 
nor  are  they  usually  admitted  on  a  mere 
verbal  confession  when  there  is  no  knowledge 


136       THE  CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

of  their  manner  of  life.  They  are  expected 
to  bear  tlie  fruit  of  the  renewed  life.  The 
church  has  treated  moral  innovations  as  she 
has  treated  men,  and  this  is  theoretically  fair ; 
but  good  men  and  good  measures  have  often 
received  but  scant  justice  at  the  hands  of 
the  church.  Our  present  point  of  view  dem- 
onstrates the  evenhandedness  of  her  justice, 
rather  than  the  wisdom  of  her   conduct. 

(7)  In  many  countries  a  union  exists  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  state.  At  one  time 
this  identification  of  the  church  with  the  state 
was  the  rule  throughout  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tendom. We  do  not  enter  into  the  merits  of 
such  connection.  Its  warmest  advocates  w411 
admit  that  the  church  and  the  civil  power  are 
not  always  like-minded.  The  priest  lighted  the 
altar-lamps,  but  the  state  treasury  supplied  the 
oil ;  and  the  church  had  sometimes  to  pay  a 
bitter  and  humiliating  price  for  the  support 
of  the  state.  Even  wliere  there  is  no  connec- 
tion Avith  the  state,  as  in  tlie  churches  of 
the  United  States  and  in  the  non-established 
churches  of  Britain,  moral  movements  are  often 
related  to  political  parties,  and  social  reforms 
very  often  find  their  way  into  politics.     AVhen 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF  THE   CHURCH      137 

legislation  is  needed,  the  political  leaders  have 
to  be  reckoned  with,  and  the  action  of  the 
church   is   more  or  less   modified. 

These  seven  considerations  take  the  shape 
of  a  cumulative  apology  ;  and  if  to  them  we 
add  the  timidit}-,  lukewarmness,  and  unfaith- 
fulness to  which  the  churches  like  individuals, 
must  plead  guilty,  the  wonder  is,  not  that  the 
church  has  done  so  little,  hut  that  it  has  done 
so  much,  as  a  pioneer  in   ethics  and  morals. 

When  we  have  said  all  tliat  can  he  said  in 
apology  for  tlie  church's  relation  to  the  evo- 
tluion  of  morals,  we  feel  that  there  is  an 
unexplained  remainder;  and  this  consists  in 
the  church's  denying  of,  or  ignorance  of,  the 
Christian  consciousness.  She  has  known  the 
truth  that  comes  by  theological  science,  by 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  and  by  the  logic  of 
events,  and  the  truth  has  made  her  free  as  far 
as  her  knowledge  fitted  her  for  freedom ;  but 
her  Christian  consciousness  has  been  to  a  great 
extent  allowed  to  lie  dormant.  When  it 
lias  been  discussed  at  all,  it  has  been  put 
aside  with  a  certain  shrinking  timidity,  Avhich 
seems  to  say,  "Do  not  let  us  have  anything 
to  do  with  it.     If   we  once  open  our   doors   to 


138       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

its  official  recognition,  we  shall  be  overwhelmed 
with  a  whole  army  of  cranks  and  of  enthusiasts, 
and  we  shall  be  forced  out  of  our  own  well- 
worn  grooves."  Let  us  beware  of  treating 
with  neglect  or  with  contempt  the  man  who 
comes  before  the  church  or  the  world  with  a 
new  thought  concerning  life  and  progi'ess  ;  for 
this  man  or  woman  may  be  the  God-appointed 
instrument  through  whom  a  new  idea,  a  moral 
truth,  is  to  be  born  into  the  world. 

Sometimes  the  churches  have  been  eager  to 
rush  into  the  opposite  extreme.  Some  churches 
in  the  United  States  made  abolition  principles  a 
shie  qua  non  of  membership,  some  to-day  make 
total  abstinence  a  condition,  and  others  non- 
membership  of  secret  societies.  In  certain  com- 
munions there  is  a  tendency  to  increase  rather 
than  to  diminish  such  tests.  The  error  of  such 
a  course,  tlie  narrowness  and  unwisdom  of  it, 
are  apparent.  It  is  granted  that  a  church  must 
liave  such  unity  in  its  dogmatic  and  ethical 
standards  as  will  enable  its  members  to  feel 
that  tliey  are  brethren  living  together  in  unity, 
but  there  should  be  room  for  the  full  play  of 
of  individualit}^  in  faith  and  in  practice.  The 
church    is    not    made    strong    by    dabbling    in 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CHURCH      139 

ethics,  letting  down  these  bars  and  putting  up 
those.  To-day  a  member  is  disciplined  because 
he  dances,  but  unrebuked  he  takes  his  Avine. 
To-morrow  the  dancing  is  ignored,  and  the 
strong  drink  is  condemned.  To-day  we  cannot 
see  how  a  Christian  can  consistently  go  to  the 
theatre,  but  there  is  no  harm  in  his  belonging 
to  a  secret  oath-bound  society;  but  to-morrow 
we  feel  kindly  toward  the  theatricals,  especially 
if  amateur  and  devoid  of  artistic  merit,  and 
Ave  pronounce  anathema  upon  the  member  of 
the  secret  society. 

We  can  suppose  the  case  of  a  man  Avho  is  a 
believer,  sound  on  the  cardinal  doctrines  and 
of  exemplary  life,  save  for  this  opinion  that  he 
holds,  and  Avhich  he  is  man  enough  to  avow. 
You  Avill  not  let  him  into  your  church.  If 
you  are  riglit,  you  should  rejoice  if  every 
ehurcli  followed  your  example.  This  child  of 
God  becomes  a  pariah,  a  religious  outcast,  Avith 
no  Lord's  Table  Avhere  he  is  Avelcome,  Avith 
none  that  he  can  call  liis  own.  In  this  Avay 
very  ordinary  sorts  of  men  have  been  con- 
verted into  martyrs  and  heroes,  and  enriched 
Avith  all  the  bitter-SAveet  satisfaction  that  comes 
from    a   chronic    sense    of   injustice.     Coercion 


140       THE   CIIBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

ill  non-essentials  hinders  the  canse  it  seeks  to 
help,  and  a  chnrch  slionld  exercise  great  care 
before  it  makes  belief  in  or  participation  in 
any  moral  movement  an  essential.  The  sump- 
tuary legislation  in  which  both  chnrch  and 
state  delighted  in  tlie  past  is  no  longer  pos- 
sible, but  a  good  deal  of  social  tyranny  in 
the  name  of  zeal  for  morals  and  manners  is 
still  possible.  One  of  the  glories  of  the  church 
ought  to  consist  in  its  being  the  place  where 
really  good  men  can  forget  a  hundred  differ- 
ences because  of  their  supreme  oneness  in 
Christ. 

You  may  make  rules  to  the  effect  that  no 
member  of  your  chnrch  shall  be  permitted  to 
dance,  or  use  strong  drink  as  a  beverage,  or  be 
a  member  of  a  secret  society,  or  play  cards  in 
any  shape  or  manner.  Suppose  that  each  one 
of  those  practices  is  more  or  less  reprehensible. 
You  have  got  a  clean  and  rather  unique  society 
from  an  ethical  point  of  view  ;  but  lo  !  you  have 
converted  your  chnrch  into  a  club,  and  your 
Lord's  Table  has  become  an  exclusive  feast  for 
those  whose  own  worthiness  is  the  measure  of 
their  neighbors'  unworthiness. 

There  is  an  evolution  in  morals  subject  to 


THE  ATTITUDE   OF   THE  CHURCH        141 

the  creative  acts  of  God.  This  evolution  the 
church  recognizes  and  guides,  but  does  not  al- 
ways lead.  It  advocates  without  invariably  as- 
suniino-  the  rio^ht  to  enforce.  It  works  without 
assailing  the  liberties  of  the  individual.  It  is 
not  pledged  to  teach  any  physical  science  or 
any  mechanical  art,  but  it  is  pledged  to  teach  a 
pure  ethic  to  society  as  such,  and  to  teach  the 
art  of  holy  living  and  peaceful  dying  to  the 
individual  as  such.  In  doing  this  its  trust  is 
in  God,  its  charter  is  the  word  of  Revelation. 
In  the  daily  struggle  onward  and  upward,  it 
knows  a  superintending,  inspiring,  and  creating 
God.  The  Christian  consciousness  is  its  hill 
of  vision,  and  its  watchword  is,  "  Things  which 
are  seen  were  not  made  of  things  which  do 
appear." 


142       TUIi:  CUUISTIAN   CONSClOUtSNElSlS 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    RELIGIOUS    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    THE 
HEATHEN 

The  question  is  often  asked  as  to  how  we 
can  explain  the  elevation  of  moral  sentiment, 
and  the  religious  consciousness,  which  are  found 
in  some  of  the  so-called  heathen  writers.  When 
the  sayings  of  Socrates,  Plato,  iNIarcus  Aure- 
lius,  and  others  are  quoted,  we  speak  of  their 
guesses  at  truth,  or  of  their  inspiration,  or  of 
their  familiarity  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
or  with  the  Hebrew  theology  as  expounded  by 
masters  in  Israel.  We  claim  that  our  view  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  is  not  radically  af- 
fected or  influenced  by  the  views  that  may  be 
held  with  regard  to  the  religious  consciousness 
in  general.  This  makes  it  unnecessary  to  en- 
ter upon  any  minute  consideration  of  the  rela- 
tion between  inspiration  and  the  heathen  cults. 
Moreover,  this  is  a  subject  on  Avhich  much  has 
been  said,  and  there  is  an  abundance  of  material 
for  study,  though  a  good  deal  of  it  is  of  a  frag- 


inentary  description.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
the  very  abundance  of  reference,  and  the  many 
uses  to  which  it  has  been  put,  call  for  a  brief 
review  of  the  outstanding  facts  in  the  case. 

Geology,  the  Book  of  Genesis,  the  Nineveh 
tablets,  and  the  almost  universal  tradition  of 
nations,  bear  testimony  to  the  fact  of  the  Del- 
uge. We  assume  the  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  Flood.  The 
closing  paragraph  of  Sir  William  Dawson's  lat- 
est work,  "  The  Meeting-place  of  Geology  and 
History,"  states  the  case  so  admirably  that  we 
quote  it  in  full.  "  We  have  merely  glanced 
cursorily  at  a  few  of  the  salient  points  of  the 
relation  of  the  primitive  history  of  man  in  Gen- 
esis to  modern  scientific  discovery.  Man}^ 
other  details  might  have  been  adduced  as  tend- 
ing to  show  similar  coincidences  of  these  two 
distinct  lines  of  evidence.  Enough  has,  how- 
ever, been  said  to  indicate  the  remarkable 
manner  in  which  the  history  in  Genesis  lias 
anticipated  modern  discovery,  and  to  show  that 
this  ancient  book  is  in  every  way  trustworthy, 
and  as  remote  as  possible  from  the  myths  and 
leo^ends  of  ancient  heathenism ;  while  it  shows 
the  historical  origin  of  beliefs  which,  in  more  or 


144       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

less  corrupted  forms,  lie  at  the  foundations  of 
the  oldest  religions  of  the  Gentiles,  and  find 
their  true  siofnificance  in  that  of  the  Hebrews. 
To  the  Christian,  the  record  in  Genesis  has  a 
still  higher  value,  as  constituting  those  histor- 
ical groundworks  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  to 
which  our  Lord  himself  so  often  referred,  and 
on  which  he  founded  so  much  of  his  teaching." 
We  are  in  the  best  of  scientific  company 
and  fellowship  when  we  make  the  Flood  a 
historic  starting-point,  but  one  who  believes 
in  and  writes  about  the  Christian  consciousness 
must  be  entitled  to  assume  the  credibility 
of  the  Old  Testament  record.  Noah  and  his 
immediate  descendants  possessed  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  God.  Apart  altogether  from 
any  supernatural  element  entering  into  its  pres- 
ervation, from  that  continuity  of  forms  which 
ritual  gives,  and  from  that  persistence  of  doc- 
trine which  faith  begets,  it  is  simply  impossi- 
ble to  conceive  of  this  knowledge  of  God  and 
worship  of  him  coming  to  a  sudden  or  abrupt 
termination.  Error  dies  hard,  and  there  is  a 
sense  in  Avhich  truth  never  dies.  It  is  ob- 
scured, almost  blotted  out ;  but  there  is  enough 
of  the  stately  edifice  left  to  guide  the  architect 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN    145 

in  its  restoration.     The  Bible  is  very  silent  as 
to  the  period  of  over  four  hundred  years  which 
elapsed  between  Noah  and  the  call  of  Abraham. 
The  incident  of  Babel,  brief   notes  of  the  dis- 
persions after   the  Flood  and  after  Babel,  and 
the  genealogies  of  the   sons   of  Noah,   are  all, 
about  four  minutes  of  reading-matter  for  four 
centuries,     Tlie   worsliip    of  the  true   God  did 
not  flee  the    earth   entirely,    but   it   was  sadly 
distorted    by   tlie    inventions    of    mankind.     It 
seems  as  if,  when  men,  by  reason  of  the  growing 
mists  of  ignorance,  error,  and  superstition,  were 
no  longer  able  to  look  into  the  home  of  God, 
at   heaven's   gates    they  found   the    objects   of 
their  adoration  ;   and  so   it   comes  to  pass  that 
sun  and  moon  and  stars  are  among  the  earliest 
objects  of  worship.     It  is   easier  to  believe   in 
and  to   follow   the   descent    from    pure    theism 
to   this    worship  of    the    powers    of    nature,   to 
this  converting  of  the  worthy  dead  into  demi- 
gods, the  unworthy  into  dismal  shades,  to  the 
worship    of    the    reproductive     principle     and 
power,  or  of  beauty,  or  of  law  and  order,  than 
it  is  to  believe  in  the  evolution  of  the  native 
New  Zealander  or  the  inhabitants  of  the  South 
Sea  Islands   up  to  monotheism.     History  tells 


146       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

US  of  nations  that  have  retrograded  in  morals 
and  in  worship,  but  there  is  no  record  of  any 
nation  rising  without  help  from  without.  The 
most  intellectual  race  of  the  historic  past 
thanks  Cadmus  for  its  alphabet,  the  British 
Druids  get  the  fire  of  the  new  life  from  a 
Latin  missionary.  The  virile  races  of  North- 
ern Europe  completed  that  Fall  of  Rome  which 
internal  corruption  made  an  easy  task,  but 
Christian  Rome  conquered  her  captors.  So  it 
has  always  been.  We  can  believe  in  the  un- 
aided growing  worse  ;  but  when  from  the  low- 
est depths  we  are  to  be  lifted,  help  must  come 
from  without.  This  is  the  history  of  the  be- 
ginnings of  civilization. 

Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham,  went  part  of 
the  way  from  Mesopotamia,  and  in  Genesis 
the  initiative  in  the  movement  is  ascribed  to 
him  as  the  head  of  the  clan ;  but  Moses,  Nehe- 
miah,  and  Stephen,  all  unite  in  declaring  that 
Abraham  went  to  Canaan  after  his  father's 
death  in  Haran  in  obedience  to  the  divine 
voice.  We  have  a  liint  that  his  family  had 
to  a  certain  extent  fallen  away  from  purity 
of  worship  before  this  call,  but  it  does  not 
seem    to   surprise    Abraham    that    God   should 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   THE  HEATHEN    147 

reveal  himself.  He  knows  God,  and  we  have 
no  reason  to  suppose  tliat  he  was  the  only  one 
on  earth  who  knew  the  only  one  and  true  God. 
The  journey  from  Mesopotamia  to  Palestine 
was,  comparatively  s[)eaking,  a  much  longer 
journey  then  than  it  is  now ;  but  at  the  extreme 
end  of  it  Abraham  encounters  Melchizedek, 
King  of  Salem  and  priest  of  tlie  Most  High 
God.  Abraham  w^as  the  priest  as  well  as  the 
chief  of  liis  clan,  but  Melchizedek  blesses  him. 
Without  entering  into  any  of  the  discussion 
which  has  gathered  round  this  most  mysteri- 
ous personage  of  Scripture,  it  will  be  granted 
that  he  was  the  priest  of  the  true  God.  The 
generally  received  interpretations  of  the  Book 
of  Job  are  at  one  in  agreeing  that  it  bears 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  this  ancient  patriarch 
was  a  prominent  figure  among  other  believ- 
ers who  were  called  the  sons  of  God.  We 
have  no  reason  for  supposing  that  Jethro  was 
the  priest  of  a  purely  heathen  cult.  In  the 
incident  of  Balaam  and  Balak  we  have  a  dis- 
obedient prophet ;  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  for  supposing  that  he  Avas  not  a  veri- 
table prophet  of  God,  knowing  him,  and  be- 
lieving in  him.     Nor  need  we  think  the  less  of 


148       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

liim  as  a  patriot  and  as  a  man,  if  he  would 
fain  have  cursed  this  people  on  the  march,  in 
whom  he  saw  the  foes  of  his  own  people,  and 
perhaps  their  future  destruction.  If  the  Magi 
were  Jews  of  the  dispersion,  we  can  under- 
stand their  intelligent  thoughts  concerning 
the  expected  Messiah;  but  if  they  were  rep- 
resentations  of  the  Gentile  world,  is  it  not  rea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  they  represented  the 
men  of  faith  and  prayer  who  had  not  lost  their 
knowledge  of  God? 

It  is  too  common  to  put  tlie  case  as  if  it 
were  a  question  as  to  whether  the  ancient 
world,  and  notably  the  sages  of  Greece,  got 
their  knowledge  in  part  from  intercourse  with 
the  Hebrew  nation  and  contact  with  Hebrew 
thouglit,  or  is  all  that  they  accomplished  the 
result  of  intellectual  and  ethical  evolution? 
But  the  real  question  is  as  to  how  much  of 
the  traditional  and  inherited  knowledge  of 
God  we  may  reasonably  suppose  them  to  have 
possessed.  If  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  in 
addition  to  the  possession  of  this  lingering 
remnant  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  we  can 
add  the  almost  certainty  of  their  knowledge 
of  contemporary  Jewish  thought  and  writings, 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN    149 

the  case  is  strengthened,  not  only  by  the  ex- 
istence of  another  source  of  knowledge,  but 
also  by  the  fact  that  tliis  second  kind,  that 
from  contact  with  the  Hebrew,  comes  to  minds 
that  are  to  a  certain  extent  prepared  for  it  by 
their  first  source  of  knowledge  of  the  trutli. 
What  reason  have  we  to  suppose  that  the 
Hebrew  thought  had  its  influence  upon  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  that  the  thought  of 
the  Gentile  world  had  more  or  less  influence 
upon  the  Jews  ?  The  Septuagint  is  evidently 
the  work  of  translators  of  unequal  ability,  and 
it  is  quite  likely  that  it  was  not  all  produced 
at  one  time ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  it 
Avas  in  the  possession  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ. 
The  Jews  in  many  cases  were  doubtless  unable 
to  read  tlieir  HebrcAV  Scriptures,  hence  this 
version.  But  whatever  were  the  reasons  for 
making  this  Greek  version,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  of  its  existence  in  a  great  centre  of 
Greek  literary  activity,  and  yet  escaping  the 
notice  of  the  acute  and  inquiring  Greek  mind. 
In  the  days  of  David  and  Solomon  the  land  of 
Israel  occupied  a  prominent  place  among  the 
teeming  population  that  was  in  continual  flux 


150       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 
When  civilization  centred  in  the  Euphrates 
Valley,  we  know  from  the  Books  of  Ezra,  Nehe- 
niiah,  Daniel,  and  Esther,  that  the  Jews  some- 
times were  prominent  in  the  state,  and  their 
religions  practices  and  tenets  must  have  been 
more  or  less  familiar  to  the  peoples  among 
whom  they  dwelt.  In  the  early  Christian 
church,  Seneca  was  claimed  by  some  as  a 
Christian.  Many  of  his  thoughts  resemble 
the  Apostle  Paul's;  and  it  does  not  concern 
our  position  Avhether  Seneca  was  indebted  to 
Paul,  .or  whether  the  great  apostle  of  the 
Gentiles  was  indebted  to  the  illustrious  Roman. 
Nor  does  it  matter  whether  or  not  we  regard 
the  resemblances  as  being  simply  the  results 
of  similar  tra,ining  on  the  part  of  men  of  ger- 
mane intellectual  habit.  Mr.  Huxley  tells  us 
with  evident  satisfaction  that  "  There  are  a 
good  many  people  who  think  it  obvious  that 
Christianity  also  inherited  a  good  deal  from 
Paganism  and  from  Judaism  ;  and  that  if  the 
Stoics  and  the  Jews  revoked  their  bequests, 
the  moral  property  of  Christianity  would  real- 
ize very  little."  To  do  Mr.  Huxley  justice,  it 
must  be  admitted   that  in  other  parts    of   his 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF  THE  HEATHEN    151 

versatile  authorship  lie  has  spoken  more  appre- 
ciatingly   of    the    "moral    property    of    Christi- 
anity."      The    Christian    scholar    regards    the 
New   Testament    as    a   growth    from    the    Old. 
The  founder  of   Christianity  said   that  he    did 
not  come  to  destroy  the   law,   but   to    fulfil    it. 
As  to  the  morals  which  we  have  got  from  the 
philosophers  of  Greece,  we  need  not  inquire  as 
to  the  bulk  or  the  quality  of  them.    The  question 
at  issue  is.  Where  did  these  philosophers  them- 
selves   get  their  morals,  which   the    New   Tes- 
tament  adopts   and   indorses?      Justin    Martyr 
recoo-nizes   the  worth  of    much    of    the    Pagan 
philosophy,  and  he  attributes  it  to  the  ''logos'' 
which  was  always  in  the  world.     We   do  not 
know,  at  this  day,  the  sources  of   information 
possessed   by   Clement   of    Alexandria,  but  his 
opinion  is  entitled  to  respect;  and  he  tells  us 
that  Plato  had  the  Bible,  and  that  Homer  was 
indebted  to  it.     It  is  quite  within  the  range  of 
guarded  imagination  to  conceive  of  a  good  deal 
of   intercourse  between    merchants    and    digni- 
taries of   Israel  and    the    other  peoples  of   the 
Levant    in    those    days    when    the    wonderful 
Temple    was    in    course    of    erection,    and   the 
wealth  and  glory  of    Solomon  were  attracting 


152       THE  CBBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

attention  on  every  side.  The  meeting-place 
was  Phoenicia,  famous  alike  for  its  commerce, 
culture,  and  skill  in  handicraft.  In  passing,  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  these  statements  of  Justin 
Martyr's  and  Clement's  will  not  fit  very  well 
into  the  ''Higher  Criticism"  of  to-day,  be- 
cause, according  to  it,  there  was  little  or  no 
Bible  in  the  time  of  Plato,  and  scarcely  any  in 
the  days  of  Homer. 

If  to  the  knowledge  of  God  which  came  down 
from  the  daAvn  of  history,  the  precious,  but  too 
easily  forgotten,  knowledge  which  the  descen- 
dants of  Noah  possessed,  Ave  add  tlie  knowledge 
that  came  from  contact  with  Hebrews,  and  with 
their  literature,  is  there  not  a  strong  case  for 
the  possession  by  some  of  a  religious  conscious- 
ness which  was  not  wholly  the  product  of 
evolution  ?  Our  argument  is  historical,  not 
doctrinal ;  nor  is  it  desirable  at  this  stage  to 
introduce  such  an  argument,  but  from  .the 
Christian  standpoint,  it  is  evidently  legitimate 
to  add  whatever  of  illumination  there  came  to 
the  men  of  the  pre-Christian  era  from  the 
eternal  logos}     He  was  "  the  true  light  which 

1  The  idea  of  the  Resurrection  was  held  by  Democritus, 
and  was  scoffingly   referred   to  by  Pliny.     Lucretius  almost 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN    153 

lightetli  every  man  that  conietli  into  the 
world."  ^  Every  man  has  a  part,  much  or 
little,  of  that   light.     This  was  something  more 

quotes  Ecclesiastes.  Homer  gave  the  soul  wings  by  which  it 
flew  out  of  the  body  into  the  mansions  of  the  dead. 

This  brief  editorial  from  the  Boston  Congregationalist  of 
the  28th  of  February,  1895,  is  significant :  — 

DO   ALL  HAVE   EQUAL   SPIRITUAL  OPPORTUNITIES  ? 

No  and  yes.  The  child  of  a  Fagan  African  Bushman  certainly 
cannot  be  said  to  have  an  equal  opportunity  to  acquire  spiritual 
knowledge  with  the  child  of  an  enlightened,  consecrated  New  Eng- 
land or  Ohio  household.  The  one  knows  next  to  nothing  about  God, 
and  nothing  at  all  about  Jesus  Christ  or  revealed  truth.  The  other 
has  inherited  the  Christian  riches  of  the  centuries,  and  understands 
riot  only  his  opportunities  of  religious  growth,  but  also  his  responsi- 
bility for  their  use.  A  wider  contrast  than  that  between  two  such 
children  hardly  can  be  imagined.  The  one  certainly  is  not  upon  an 
equal  footing  in  the  matter  with  the  other. 

But  they  may  be  regarded  from  another  point  of  view.  Suppose 
the  soul  of  the  African  child,  as  childhood  develops  into  maturity, 
to  feel  a  precious  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  the  great  God,  to 
strive  feebly  yet  earnestly  to  obey  and  please  him,  and  to  be  devoted, 
however  imperfectly,  to  the  effort  to  live  loyally  up  to  the  little  spir- 
tual  light  which  has  been  afforded.  Suppose  the  American  child  to 
be,  as  so  many,  alas!  are,  often  indifferent,  rather  than  increasingly 
devoted,  to  God,  and  to  grow  in  holiness  only  sluggishly  and  by  no 
means  as  fast  or  as  far  as  possible. 

Now,  although  the  latter  may  attain  a  moral  plane  far  higher 
than  that  of  the  former,  and  even,  may  have  started  upon  a  plane 
much  higher  than  the  highest  ever  attained  by  the  former,  it  may  be 
the  young  African,  not  the  American,  who  at  last  has  risen  more 
from  his  original  state  toward  God,  who  has  made  the  longer  progress 
toward  holiness,  who  has  exhibited  the  more  genuine  spiritual  ear- 
nestness and  fidelity.  And  this  may  be,  and  doubtless  is,  what  God 
values  most.  So  that  in  respect  to  the  possibility  of  spiritual  prog- 
ress, which  is  the  essential  matter,  the  two  cases  supposed,  and  all 
cases,  stand  upon  the  sam  footing.  Each  has  been  granted  an 
equal  opportunity  to  rise.  How  else,  indeed,  could  God  be  fair,  as 
he  must  be  ? 

1  John  1.  9. 


154       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

than  the  mere  light  of  nature.  Our  plea  for  the 
possession  of  the  religious  consciousness  other 
and  more  than  natural  evolution  can  give,  is  a 
threefold  cord. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  argued  that  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  does  not  leave  much  more 
for  the  Christian  consciousness  to  confer  on 
those  wlio  possess  it.  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  a 
man  able  to  judge  in  this  matter.  So  far  as  we 
can  judge,  his  religious  consciousness  was  de- 
veloped before  his  conversion  to  Christianity. 
He  was  not  lacking  in  moral  earnestness.  Now, 
it  so  happens  that  Paul  the  Christian  throws 
out  a  singular  and  altogether  remarkable  chal- 
lenge to  history  bearing  on  this  matter.  He 
says:  "For  seeing  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God 
the  world  through  its  wisdom  knew  not  God, 
it  Wxas  God's  good  pleasure  through  the  fool- 
ishness of  the  preaching  to  save  them  that  be- 
lieve." ^  This  is  the  culmination  of  an  eloquent 
strain  of  rejoicing  in  the  power  of  Christ's 
death.  The  world  was  in  —  had  sunk  into  — 
a  position  which  is  plainly  described  as  not 
knowing  God.  This  evidently  had  not  always 
been   the    case.     The  world   had  come  to  this 

1  Cor.  i.  21. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN    155 

ignorance  of  God  in,  b}',  or  through  its  wisdom. 
This  was  God's  decree.  It  was  in  the  wisdom, 
Avill,  and  pLan  of  God.  It  is  only  a  halting 
logic  which  limits  the  Eternal  Omniscient. 
With  Omnipotence  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  human  will  on  the  other ;  it  is 
not  reason,  but  imagination,  conjecture,  and  h}^- 
pothesis,  which  tries  to  reconcile  and  explain 
this  coexistence.  When  man's  wisdom  failed, 
then  God's  plan  of  salvation,  his  means  to  that 
end,  was  to  come  into  play.  It  was  the  fool- 
ishness  or  simplicity  of  preaching. 

Without  entering  upon  any  discussion  of  the 
literature  that  has  gathered  round  questions  as 
to  the  date  of  the  authorship  of  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that,  by  almost  common  consent,  the  long  line 
of  the  prophets  came  to  a  close  about  four 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  then  came  the 
centuries  of  God's  silence.  The  world  was  left 
to  its  own  wisdom ;  and  never  had  the  wisdom 
of  the  world  a  better  chance  to  excel  than 
in  those  centuries.  They  were  ushered  in  by 
Socrates,  who  was  persuaded  about  the  reality 
of  his  religious  mission,  and  who  believed  in 
the  divine  voice  that  spoke  to  him.     He  taught 


156       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

tlie  doctrine  of  contented  poverty  by  precept 
and  by  example.  He  was  the  greatest  ethical 
teacher  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Plato, 
his  pupil,  was  the  master  of  dialogue  and  of  phi- 
losophy. Both  were  profound  moralists.  The 
roll-call  of  the  century  which  was  heralded  by 
these  greatest  of  the  Greeks,  say  from  400  to 
300  B.C.,  is  unequalled  in  history.  Aristotle, 
philosopher,  logician,  and  mathematician ;  Dio- 
genes the  Cynic,  the  keenest  of  critics ;  Euclid, 
geometrician  and  philosopher ;  Zeno,  father  of 
the  Stoics ;  and  Epicurus  of  the  Epicureans, 
—  Avere  all  men  of  this  marvellous  century. 
Nor  were  the  gentler  elements  of  life  lacking. 
From  Homer,  Herodotus,  Xenophon,  and  Phid- 
ias, they  had  a  rich  inheritance  of  poetry  and 
art.  It  was  the  age,  not  only  of  philosophy, 
but  also  of  poetry,  art,  and  oratory.  Rome  con- 
quered Greece  by  arms,  and  Greece  conquered 
Rome  by  her  philosophy.  These  centuries  wit- 
nessed not  only  the  glory  of  Roman  power,  but 
also  her  Augustan  age  of  literature. 

The  civilization  of  tlie  West  was  only  that 
of  one-half  of  the  world.  Another  half  lay  to 
the  east  of  this  singular  people  who  dwelt  in 
Palestine.     There  we  find  Buddhism.     It  is  the 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  UEATIIEN    157 

fashion   amongst  certain  visionaries  and  extre- 
mists in  these  days  to  find  wonderful  comfort 
in   Buddha.     The   world   is   indebted   to    Max 
Miiller,  Rhys  Davids,  and  other  Oriental  stu- 
dents for  the  light  that  they  have  thrown  upon 
that  system  of  belief  which  influences  more  or 
less  the  destinies  of  "four   hundred  millions  of 
our  fellow  beings.      But  there  are  others  who 
are  visionaries  when  they  are  not  frauds,  and 
who   are  not  philosophers   in   either  case,  who 
find  what  seems  to  be  sometimes  a  morbid  and 
sometimes    an    ecstatic    satisfaction    in    certain 
occult   mysteries  and  puerile  miracles.     Every 
man  lives  by  faith.     We  must  believe,  even  if 
our  faith  is  a  belief  in  unbelief.     The  devotees 
of  Western  spiritualism  and  of  Eastern  occult- 
ism are  cousins-german. 

David  Hume  was  a  bachelor ;  and  he  lived 
with  his  mother,  a  good  old  Scotch  lady,  who 
was  not  troubled  with  her  famous  son's  scepti- 
cism. Nor  does  she  seem  to  have  been  much 
troubled  about  him.  This  pleasant  story  is 
told  of  her.  It  is  one  of  those  stories  which 
ought  to  be  true  if  it  is  not,  — a  story  which 
is  a  parable  if  it  is  not  history.  She  was  enter- 
taining certain  old  ladies  of  Edinburgh  to  tea; 


158       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  with  engaging  frankness  of  sympathetic 
intimacy,  one  of  them  remarked :  ''  It  must  be 
hard  for  you,  Mrs.  Hume,  to  live  with  a  man 
Hke  your  son  David,  who  believes  i;i  nothing." 
"  My  son  David  believe  in  nothing  I  "  retorted 
the  eld  lady.  ''  It's  little  ye  ken  about  my 
Dauvit.  He'll  believe  anything  that  is  not  in 
the  Bible." 

Edwin  Arnold  gives  the  date  of  Buddha  as 
B.C.  623.  Max  Miiller  places  it  at  B.C.  557. 
But  Rhys  Davids,  perhaps  the  first  autliority  on 
this  question,  gives  the  date  as  B.C.  492.  He 
belonged  to  the  same  generation  as  Phidias  and 
Socrates.  The  best  thought  of  India  came  just 
before  the  divine  silence  began.  In  China,  Con- 
fucianism assumed  its  present  form  about  B.C. 
500;  and  Lao-tse,  the  founder  of  Taoism,  was 
the  contemporary  of  Socrates  and  of  Buddha. 
Did  ever  the  world  have  such  a  chance  as  it 
had  in  these  four  centuries  that  preceded  the 
Christian  era  ?  East  and  West  there  was  phe- 
nomenal intellectual  activity,  aesthetic  culture, 
artistic  skill,  and  literary  activity.  Nor  was 
there  lacking,  seemingly,  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual capital  which  are  required  for  the  higher 
business  of  the  world.     Contact  with  the  Jew 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN    159 

remained ;  but  the  knowledge  of  God  that  once 
filled  the  earth  was  a  rapidly  vanishing  posses- 
sion. The  wisdom  of  the  world  was  having  its 
opportunity  and  trial.  So  Paul  says.  Even 
the  man  who  does  not  believe  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures  has,  as  a  mere  matter  of  liter- 
ary criticism,  to  accept  the  genuineness  and  au- 
thenticity of  Paul's  letters.  His  inspiration 
may  be  denied,  but  his  work  cannot  be  ignored. 
He  tells  us  that  the  wisdom  of  the  world  Avas 
on  its  trial ;  and  the  result  was  that  this  wis- 
dom, whatever  else  it  did,  blotted  out  the 
knowledgr-e  of  God.  "  The  world  throuo-h  its 
Avisdom  knew  not  God." 

Let  us  suppose  that  some  student  of  moral 
and  social  problems  flourished  b.  c.  BOO.  All 
the  mighty  men  whom  we  have  named  have 
passed  away  ;  but  almost  all  of  them  are  men 
of  the  last  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Our  stu- 
dent Avatches  the  throbbing,  earnest,  quickened 
life  of  Greece,  and,  patriot  as  he  is,  dreams 
fondly  of  the  good  time  coming  from  it  all. 
Nor  can  he  help  rejoicing  for  humanity's  sake 
in  the  vigorous  and  virtuous  Roman  Republic, 
even  though  he  fears  while  he  admires.  While 
this  is  the  state  of  his  mind  and  of  his  knowl- 


IGO       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

edge,  an  adventurous  Greek  comes  to  Athens 
from  far-off  India.  He  tells  our  sage  the  story 
of  the  great  Indian  reformer.  He  gives  rose- 
colored  but  fair  information  as  to  what  has 
already  been  accomplished,  and  as  to  what  the 
hope  of  India  is.  And  yet  another  comes  bear- 
ing tidings  from  afar.  He  has  been  to  far-off 
Cathay  and  beyond,  and  lias  a  strange  story  to 
tell  of  a  civilization  which  is  young  and  hope- 
ful, of  a  great  philosopher,  and  of  a  great  re- 
former. The  thoughtful  Greek  hears  their 
wonderful  stories,  and  rejoices.  Is  there  not 
good  reason  to  believe  that  the  world  is  on 
the  eve  of  mighty  clianges  for  good?  Why 
should  he  not  grow  prophetic  in  his  zeal,  and 
believe  in  the  comincr  crood  and  in  the  com- 
ing  wisdom  ?  What  did  come  of  it  all  ?  — 
of  these  centuries  of  philosophy,  poetry,  and 
art,  which  were  also  centuries  throbbing  with 
new  spiritual  impulses,  with  the  vigor  of  new 
creeds,  and  with  the  enthusiasm  of  new  leaders? 
Let  the  first  chapter  of  Romans  answer  the 
question.'  Let  Gibbon  bear  his  testimony  all 
unswayed  by  zeal  for  the  Christian  faith.  Read 
Farrar's  "  Early  Days  of  Christianity."  All  au- 
thorities  unite    in    telling   a    somewhat  similar 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  THE  HEATHEN     161 

sliameful  story.  The  wisdom  of  the  worhl  was 
a  dismal  failure.  Insincerity,  cruelty,  and  self- 
ishness were  rampant.  Society  was  honey- 
combed with  vice.  The  anticipations  of  the 
sage  had  not  been  fulfilled.  The  world  had 
grown  worse. 

The  pleasant  city  of  Pompeii  lies  beside  the 
great  mountain.     It  is  not  a  capital  like  Rome, 
having  the  wealth,  gayety,  and  vices  of  an  im- 
perial centre.     It  is  a  fair  representative  of  the 
average  prosperous  community  of  that  day.     It 
was  buried,  as  one  might  say,  instantaneously, 
and  it  lay  buried  for  long  centuries.     The  ex- 
cavation of  the  buried  city  tells  us   just  how 
they  lived  when  our  Lord  walked  this  earth. 
It  is  a  sad  story  of  artistic  excellence  and  of 
moral  filth.     Christ  came  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
so  far  as  earth's  need  of  some  one  to  show  it 
goodness,  truth,  and  life  was  concerned.      The 
Christian  consciousness  came  into  a  world  from 
which  the   religious   consciousness   had  almost 
vanished,  so  far  as  any  knowledge  of  tlie  true 
God,  any  pure  theism,  was  concerned.     History 
tells  of  the  decline  and  fall,  as  well  as  of  the 
evolution  and  ascent,  of  nations   and   of   indi- 
viduals.     When    the    centuries    of    the    divine 


162       THE   CUBISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

silence  began,  the  world  had  a  good  amount  of 
moral  and  spiritual  capital ;  but  her  wisdom 
proved  to  have  a  fatal  defect.  She  lost  almost 
all  her  capital,  and  Jesus  came  into  a  world 
that  was  morally  and  spiritually  bankrupt. 


BELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  163 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   RELATION    OF   THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUS- 
NESS   TO   DOCTRINE 

In  considering  the  relation  of  the  Christian 
conscionsness   to   development  or  evolution  of 
doctrine,  we  are  met  first  of  all  by  those  who 
deny  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as  an  evolu- 
tion or  development  of  doctrine.     Fortunately, 
however,  this  is  not  a  question  of  theory,  but 
of  fact ;  and  to  the  facts  in  the  case  we  propose 
to    appeal.      We    have    also    to    encounter   the 
difficulty  of  discriminating  between  moral  sanc- 
tions and  dogmatic  statements.     For  example, 
the  Southern  preachers  declared  that  abolition 
was  an  atheistical  principle  ;  and  the  abolition- 
ists of  the  North,  who  were  in  sympathy  with 
relio-ion,    in   many    cases   desired   a   church   in 
which  the  holding  of  sound  abolition  principles 
would  be  a  test  of  membership.     The  issue  was 
transferred   from    morals    to    doctrine    by   both 
parties.      In   the   temperance  question,  when   a 
church  takes  official  action  in  favor  of  prohibi- 


1G4       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

tion,  it  not  only  asserts  a  dogma,  or  doctrine  of 
the  church,  but  it  also  lifts  the  question  into 
the  arena  of  practical  politics.  To  tliis  it  may 
be  replied  that  this  is  not  one  of  the  great 
doctrines  of  theology.  True,  it  has  not  a  his- 
tory, because  it  is  new.  It  does  not  require  an 
apologetic  literature,  because  there  has  not  been 
division  on  account  of  it,  or  much  or^xanized 
attack  of  it ;  but  it  is  doctrine,  nevertheless,  and 
of  more  practical  importance  to-day,  and  more 
of  a  living  issue  in  Protestantism  to-day,  than 
is,  let  us  say,  baptismal  regeneration,  or  the  dif- 
ference between  consubstantiation  and  transub- 
stantiation. 

Much  depends  upon  our  definition  of  doc- 
trine. Is  it  the  thing  taught?  Then  the  word 
embraces  the  whole  of  revelation.  Is  it  that 
which  is  necessary  for  salvation  ?  Then  it  covers 
a  few  simple  truths.  Is  it  those  truths  that  are 
commonly  held  in  all  the  churches  ?  Then 
many  doctrines  will  be  excluded.  Is  it  the  con- 
fessional symbols  of  each  denomination  and  the 
sum  total  of  all  of  them  ?  Then  the  field  is 
very  wide.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  we  may 
claim  that  every  moral  movement  is  related 
to  some  pliase  of   Christian  doctrine,  and  it  is 


DELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  165 

equally  true  that  every  doctrine  will  have  moral 
issues  ;  but  it  is  easily  understood  and  readily 
accepted  when  we  say  that  the  thought  of  the 
church   about  the   use  of   alcoholic  drinks  is  a 
moral  problem,  and  her  thought  about  the  sal- 
vation of  the  heathen  is  a  question  in  doctrine. 
In  choosing  the  doctrine  of  the  salvation  of 
infants  as  affording  our  first  illustration  of  the 
relation  of  the  Christian  consciousness  to  devel- 
opment in   doctrine,  let  it  be  steadily  kept  in 
mind  that  the  question  before  us  is  not  as  to  the 
truth  of  the  doctrine,  or  the  opposite,  but  simply 
a  question  as  to  the  Jioiv,  —  the  mode  by  which 
the  present  largely  prevailing  opinion  came  into 
the   church.     What  was  the  prevalent  opinion 
on  this  question  after  the  Reformation  ?    It  goes 
without  saying  that  those  churches  which  be- 
lieve in  baptismal  regeneration  do  not  believe  in 
the  salvation  of  all  infants.     It  is  well  known 
that  infant  salvation  was  not  taught  in  the  Cal- 
vinistic    churches    of    the   seventeenth   century. 
Their  creeds  do  not  teach  it,  and  much  of  their 
literature  proves  that  the  opposite  opinion  was 
held.     It   was    never    asserted   that  all   infants 
were  lost,  but  it  was  plainly  taught  that  many 
fell  short  of  salvation.     Some  of  these  churches 


166       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

held  that  baptism  signified  and  sealed  the  par- 
takin<T  of  the  benefits  of  the  covenant  of  o-race, 
but  only  the  children  of  members  of  the  church 
could  be  baptized.  Another  church  said  there 
is  no  salvation  without  baptism,  but  we  will 
baptize  every  child.  And  yet  another  said  bap- 
tism is  the  privilege  and  duty  of  believers; 
therefore  we  will  not  baptize  anj-  man  until  he 
is  able  in  years,  in  knowledge,  and  in  heart  to 
make  confession  of  his  own  faith.  The  elect 
infants  were  the  unconscious  heirs  of  grace. 
Calvin's  position  about  the  chosen  children,  is 
in  this  sentence,  "  Quos  parvidos  Domhnis  ex  liac 
vita  recolligit^  non  diihlto  regenerari  arcana 
Spiritiis  operatione.^^  To-day  the  salvation  of 
infants  is  very  generally  believed  throughout 
Protestant  Christendom.  No  doubt  a  very  good 
argument  can  be  made  in  favor  of  this  belief. 
It  may  be  briefly  outlined  as  follows  :  granting 
that  a  clean  thing  cannot  come  out  of  an  un- 
clean, granting  original  sin  and  the  guilt  of  it, 
in  what  sense  did  Christ  taste  death  for  tliis 
infant,  if  it  was  not  to  wash  away  this  inherited 
stain  ?  ^  He  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  especially 
of  those  that  believe.^     If  a  child  grows  and  be- 

1  Heb.  ii.  9.  ^  1  Tim.  iv.  10. 


RELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  167 

lieves  he  is  saved ;  surely  if  he  dies  before  he 
can  choose  between  good  and  evil  he  will  not 
be  lost.  Jesus  said,  ''  Of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  God."  ^  Therefore  the  children  are  the  sons 
of  God.  They  either  do  not  need  to  be  born 
again,  or  they  have  been  born  again.  In  either 
case,  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins :  and 
not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world."  ^  Accordino-  to  such  a  view  of 
the  truth,  the  child  should  be  taught  that  he  is 
the  child  of  God,  and  will  be  his  child  forever, 
unless  by  his  own  act  he  goes  into  the  far  coun- 
try of  sin  and  disobedience.  He  should  not  be 
taught  that  he  is  a  hell-deserving  little  wretch. 
If  such  views  are  right,  do  we  not  need  to  recon- 
struct our  theology  concerning  baptism?  God's 
ordinances  are  for  God's  people.  Do  we  not 
baptize  the  child  and  the  adult  for  the  same 
reason,  because  of  their  being  children  of  God, 
saved  by  his  grace  ?  Tliis  more  hopeful  creed 
and  sunnier  theology  may  be  true  or  it  may 
not.  These  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  century 
divines  were  better  theologians  than  we  are. 
There  is  an  inexorable  chain  of  reasoning  in 
favor  of  their  views.     The  world's  thought  on 

1  Mark  x.  14.  2  i  John  ii.  2. 


168       TUE  CUB  1ST  IAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

this  subject  has  not  changed  by  a  logical  process, 
but  the  Christian  consciousness  has  asserted 
itself.  It  says,  "  Your  logic  may  be  faultless, 
and  your  interpretation  may  be  correct ;  but  it  is 
not  the  will  of  God,  it  is  not  the  thought  of  God. 
The  time  will  surely  come  Avhen  the  error  in 
your  logic  and  in  your  interpretation  will  be 
clear  to  all  the  world.  Meanwhile,  the  position 
of  my  Christian  consciousness  is  not  that  I  will 
not  believe,  but  that  T  cannot  believe  as  you  do." 
Does  not  this  describe  the  attitude  of  many  ? 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  indefinite  writing 
and  speaking  in  these  days  about  the  Zeit  Geist, 
the  spirit  of  the  age.  It  is  regarded  as  ex- 
plaining a  condition  of  things,  whereas  it  is 
merely  the  putting  of  a  label  upon  it.  The 
spirit  of  the  age  is  the  consensus  of  opin- 
ion. Some  men  may  hold  an  opinion  almost 
in  spite  of  themselves,  and  with  a  certain 
amount  of   mental   reservation   and    unwilling- 

o 

ness ;  some  entertain  it  very  doubtingly  and 
tentatively ;  and  some  are  its  confident  and 
enthusiastic  promulgators.  In  secular  affairs 
the  spirit  of  the  age  is  the  aggregate  con- 
sciousness of  a  community  ;  in  morals  and  doc- 
trine it  is  the  Christian  consciousness. 


BELATION    TO  BOCTRINE  169 

We  are  sometimes  told  by  a  certain  class  of 
apologists  that  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
century  men  were  so  busy  with  their  figlit 
with  Rome  and  with  the  necessary  formula- 
tion of  their  systematic  theology,  that  they 
had  no  time  for  the  consideration  of  those 
ethical,  moral,  and  even  dogmatic  issues  that 
are  of  so  mucli  interest  to  us.  But  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  had  both  time  and  incli- 
nation to  reduce  their  theories  to  practice ; 
and  the  moralities  were  looked  after  with  all 
the  vigilance  to  be  expected  of  a  dominant 
church  which  had  freed  itself  s[)iritually  from 
Rome,  but  had  not  freed  itself  from  the  tra- 
ditional policy  of  Rome.  The  question  as  to 
whether  the  seventeenth  or  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury belief  concerning  the  salvation  of  infants 
is  the  correct  interpretation,  applies  not  only 
to  this  doctrine,  but  to  every  doctrine  that  has 
been  modified  by  the   Christian   consciousness. 

THE  SALVATION  OF  THE  HEATHEN. 

This  question  has  been  so  much  and  so 
keenly  debated  of  late  3'ears  that  it  is  not 
necessary  for  our  purpose  in  this  work  to  go 
into  it.     The  trial  of  a  professor  of  Andover 


170       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

Theological  Seminary,  and  the  prolonged  dis- 
cussion in  the  American  Board,  as  to  its  rela- 
tion to  those  candidates  for  the  mission  field 
who  entertained  the  larger  hope  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  salvation  after  death,  by  the  pres- 
entation of  tlie  Christ,  whom  in  life  they 
had  no  opportunity  of  knowing,  and  there- 
fore no  opportunity  to  accept  or  to  reject, 
has  brought  this  doctrine  very  prominently 
before  the  public  mind.  But  it  has  been  not 
altogether  as  friendly  to  the  acceptance  of 
belief  in  the  salvation  of  the  heathen  as  mio-ht 
be  supposed,  because  it,  as  it  were,  prescribed 
the  one  method  by  which  it  Avas  secured. 
This  "one  chance  more"  doctrine  is  rejected 
by  many  who  entertain  a  hope  of  the  salva- 
tion of  some  of  tlie  lieathen.  In  the  preceding 
chapter  we  have  endeavored  to  state  the  con- 
siderations which  may  be  regarded  as  justify- 
ing the  Christian  consciousness  for  this  belief 
concerning  the  future  of,  not  all  the  heathen. 
But  the  Christian  consciousness,  wliile  it  needs 
rational  sanctions,  does  not  always  wait  for 
exegetical  justification ;  and  just  in  this  must 
always  lie  its  strength  and  its  weakness. 
What    is    the    difference    between    a    rational 


RELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  171 

sanction  and  a  theological  jnstification  ?  It 
may  be  pnt  in  this  AA^ay.  If  to  Avhoni  much 
is  given,  of  him  much  shall  be  required  ;  and 
to  whom  little  is  given,  little  shall  be  required; 
it  follows  that  to  whom  nothing  is  given,  noth- 
ing shall  be  required.  The  use  or  the  abuse  of 
the  knowledge  given,  therefore,  seals  the  fate 
of  man.  The  abstract  conception  of  supreme 
justice  enables  us  to  believe  in  the  impossi- 
bility of  any  going  away  from  the  throne  of 
the  Eternal  Justice  feeling  or  believing  that 
they  have  been  hardly  dealt  with.  There- 
fore the  heathen  who  makes  shipwreck  of  life 
must  feel  not  only  that  he  is  reaping  as  he 
sowed,  but  also  that  he  had  light  enough  to 
sow  in  other  fashion,  had  his  free  will  so  chosen 
and  consented.  This  may  be  called  a  rational 
sanction  for  the  Christian  consciousness;  but 
it  will  not  satisfy  it,  neither  will  it  create  it. 
The  thought  of  God,  and  the  witness  of  God, 
are  there. 

An  exegetical  or  theological  justification  is 
another  thing  ;  and  here,  again,  the  seventeenth 
century  theologian  has  the  victory.  He  can 
and  does  prove  that  the  heathen  are  perish- 
ing almost  if  not  altogether  without  exception. 


172      'THE  CHIUSTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

He  not  only  proved  it;  he  believed  it.  And 
yet  for  a  centmy  and  a  half  he  made  no  effort 
to  reach  them,  no  effort  to  obey  the  last  com- 
mand of  his  risen  Lord.  Even  dignitaries 
of  the  Church  of  England  made  fun  of  the 
beginnings  of  missionary  work  in  India.  They 
NOW  believe  it;  and  in  every  Protestant  country 
under  heaven  you  will  find  towns  or  hamlets 
of  say  from  three  hundred  to  one  thousand 
inhabitants  with  about  two  or  three  times  the 
clerical  force  necessary  for  their  best,  highest 
good;  and  Ethiopia  in  vain  stretches  out  her 
hands  unto  God,  and  there  is  not  one  worker 
for  a  hundred  thousand  of  those  who  are 
perishing. 

Is  it  to  be  Avondered  at  if  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness testifies  thus  to  itself :  ''  Ah,  no  I  the 
church  does  not  believe.  She  only  thinks  she 
believes  it.  Would  the  church  wrangle  over 
vestments,  and  wax  candles,  and  ecclesiastical 
tailorincT  ?  Would  she  waste  her  enermes  over 
questions  pertaining  to  the  jn'ovince  of  reverent 
and  scholarly  specialists  ?  AVould  she  expend 
so  much  energy  as  she  does  now  in  a  hundred 
ways  if  she  really  and  truly  believed  that  the 
perishing  millions  were  sinking  into  perdition, 


RELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  173 

and  over  the  very  edge  of  the  pit  were  waiting 
in  vain  for  life.  Ah,  no!  the  church  does  not 
believe;  she  only  thinks  she  believes."  It 
would  be  easy  to  prove  that  this  soliloquy  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  was  all  wrong  be- 
cause so  utterly  out  of  historical  perspective, 
and  conceding  so  little  to  the  imperfection  of 
human  nature,  and  to  the  unfaithfulness  of 
Christians ;  but  then  you  do  not  succeed  in 
convincing  the  Christian  consciousness.  Nay, 
more,  this  stubborn  Christian  consciousness  de- 
clares :  "  I  know  God ;  your  theology  is  wrong. 
I  may  not  be  able  to  prove  it,  but  it  is  erro- 
neous ;  and  the  time  is  coming  when  it  will  not 
be  taught  in  your  schools  ;  and  then  for  Christ's 
sake  you  will  do  more  for  the  heathen  than  you 
are  doing  now."  The  appeal  is  to  the  verdict 
of  time  ;  and  let  it  go  to  its  chosen  time  and 
place  of  decision.  There  is  neither  pleasure 
nor  profit  in  debating  it  now\  But  it  is  well 
to  keep  in  mind  the  outstanding  facts  of  the 
case. 

There  are  certain  features  common  to  the 
doctrines  of  infant  salvation,  and  the  salvation 
of  the  heathen. 

(1)    As  a  rule  the  churches  of  the  Reforma- 


174       THE  CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

tion  did  not  believe  in,  and  did  not  teach,  the 
salvation  of  infants  or  of  the  heathen. 

(2)  Their  condemnation  was  not  only  be- 
lieved in  ;  it  was  the  theme  of  discourses  in  the 
pulpit,  and  found  its  place  in  the  popular  litera- 
ture ^  and  verse  of  the  period. 


1  Michael  Wigglesworth  was  the  most  wretched  rhymster 
"who  ever  achieved  a  reputation,  even  in  those  colonial  days  of 
New  England  of  which  Prof.  Coit  Tyler  saj^s :  "  Neither  ad- 
vanced age,  nor  high  office,  nor  mental  unfitness,  nor  previous 
respectability,  were  sufficient  to  protect  any  one  from  the  poetic 
vice."  His  "  Day  of  Doom  "  was  the  most  popular  and  widely 
read  book  in  America  previous  to  the  Revolution.  This  is  his 
picture  of  the  wicked  at  God's  Judgment  Bar. 

"  With  dismal  chains  and  strongest  reins 

Like  prisoners  of  hell, 
They're  held  in  place  before  Christ's  face, 

Till  He  their  doom  shall  tell. 
These  void  of  tears,  but  lilled  with  fears, 

And  dreadful  expectations; 
Of  endless  pains,  and  scalding  flames, 

stand  waiting  for  damnation." 

Wigglesworth  put  into  execrable  verse  what  the  preachers  of 
his  day  taught  in  ornate  but  forcible  prose.  It  was  an  over- 
confident theology.     It  knew  everything. 

Tlie  Puritan  divines  were  as  infallible  in  their  way  as 
Rome  was.  In  the  seventeenth  century  every  man  was  a 
dogmatist  of  the  severest  type,  until  with  tlie  end  of  the  cen- 
tury came  the  inevitable  reaction.  But  to  return  to  "Wiggles- 
worth.  He  proceeds  to  parade  his  theology  in  reply  to  those 
who  had  died  in  infancy,  and  who  pleaded  that  they  had  never 
done  good  or  evil  personally,  but  had  been  straightway  carried 
"  from  the  womb  into  the  tomb." 


IlELATION   TO   JJOCTIilNE  175 

(3)  Theoretically  and  officially  the  churches 
have  not  changed  their  doctrinal  position  with 
regard  to  these  two  doctrines. 

(4)  There  has,  however,  been  a  change  in 
the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  churches  ;  and 
this  change  has  been  manifested  by  demands 
for  simpler  and  shorter  creeds,  and  for  modi- 
fied forms  of  subscription  to  existing  creeds. 


"  You  sinners  are;  and  such  a  share 

As  sinners  may  expect, 
Such  you  shall  have,  for  I  do  save 

None  but  mine  own  elect. 
Yet,  to  compare  your  sins  with  their 

Who  lived  a  longer  time, 
I  do  confess,  yours  is  much  less, 

Though  every  sin's  a  crime. 
A  crime  it  is,  therefore,  in  bliss 

You  may  not  hope  to  dwell; 
But  unto  you,  I  shall  allow 
The  easiest  room  in  hell." 

Can  a  dismal  anthropomorphism  go  any  farther  ?  Wiggles- 
worth's  God  is  a  sort  of  gloomy  and  glorified  Oliver  Cromwell. 
But  Wigglesworth's  God  was  the  God  of  the  Protestant  major- 
ity in  Britain  and  in  America.  Need  it  be  added  that  Roman 
Catholics  and  Sacramentarians  in  the  Episcopal  Church  and  in 
other  communions  taught  the  hopelessness  of  the  case  of  those 
who  died  unbaptized.  The  former  view  has  changed ;  the 
latter  has  not.  The  former  view  said,  "The  guilt  of  the 
parent  is  upon  the  child;  "  the  latter  view  said,  "The  act  of 
faith  and  duty  on  the  part  of  the  parent  and  of  the  church  has 
saved  the  child." 

In  the  debates  of  the  famous  Westminster  Assembly,  there 
was  substantial  agreement  as  to  doctrine,  but  there  was  great 
difference  as  to  government. 


176       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

(5)  These  doctrines  are  not  preached  as 
they  were  in  former  years.  There  is  either  a 
significant  silence,  or  a  bold  proclamation  of 
faith  in  the  future  wellbeing  and  blessedness 
of  the  children. 

(6)  The  change  of  view  has  been  so  far 
much  more  marked  and  decided  in  the  case  of 
the  salvation  of  infants  than  in  that  of  the 
salvation  of  the  heathen. 

If  our  doctrinal  or  theoretic  position  has  not 
changed,  we  naturally  expect  to  find  the  cause 
of  this  change  of  belief  in  our  modified  con- 
ceptions of  the  character  of  God,  as  revealed 
to  us  by  and  in  our  Christian  consciousness. 
We  cannot  lay  too  much  emphasis  upon  the 
modifications  of  doctrine  that  come  from  chan- 
ging and  larger  and  juster  conceptions  of  the 
character  of  God,  for  this  is  peculiarl}^  the 
finest  office  work  of  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness. There  are  doctrinal  changes  and  differ- 
ences  in  which  the  character  of  God  is  not  in- 
volved ;  or,  rather,  let  us  put  it  as  changes  in 
which  our  ethical  and  moral  conceptions  of  the 
divine  character  are  not  involved.  For  exam- 
ple, the  questions  as  between  pre-  and  post-mil- 
lenarian  views  are  always  interesting,  and  were 


RELATION   TO  DOCTRINE  111 

never  more  interesting  than  at  the  present  day, 
when  the  feeling  grows  that  "  the  times  are 
waxing  hite,"  and  the  pre-millenarian's  views 
are  being  expounded  by  so  many  men  emi- 
nent for  evangelical  zeal  and  for  sound  scholar- 
ship. No  one  denies  the  fascination  that  there 
is  in  the  blessed  vision  of  the  future  that  is  un- 
folded by  it ;  and  every  scholar  knows  the  grave 
difficulties  that  stand  in  the  way  of  its  accept- 
ance by  many.  But  in  all  this  the  divine  char- 
acter is  not  involved.  Our  thought  about  God 
is  not  to  be  strained  or  changed  by  the  position 
that  we  occupy  in  this  matter.  But  our  thought 
about  God  is  involved  in  our  conceptions  of  him 
as  related  to  infant  salvation,  and  the  salvation 
of  the  heathen. 

It  may  be  said  that  faith  should  rise  above 
gloomy  doubts  and  fears,  and  should  enable  us 
with  patience  and  confidence  to  wait  for  the 
revealing  of  the  everlasting  right.  But  it  does 
not.  The  supreme  desire  of  every  pure  soul  is 
to  know  God.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart, 
for  they  shall  see  God."'  It  is  true  that  the 
finite  can  have  but  a  partial  vision  of  the  infi- 
nite. We  wait  for  the  blessed  time  coming, 
when  we  shall  know  and  shall  see  him  as  he  is ; 


178       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

but,  meanwhile,  my  vision  of  God  must  be  real 
so  far  as  it  goes.  I  may  see  as  in  a  glass 
darkly,  but  I  cannot  afford  to  have  a  distorted 
image.  My  conception  of  God,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  must  be  satisfactory  to  my  reason. 

There  is  another  class  of  moral  and  spiritual 
problems  in  Avliich  the  character  of  God  is  in- 
volved. Take,  for  example,  the  allied  questions 
of  persecution  and  cruelty.  Putting  to  one 
side  the  horrors  of  heathenism,  let  us  consider 
the  torture,  cruelt}^  and  oppression  of  the 
Christian  era.  The  Spanish  Inquisition  has  the 
bad  pre-eminence  of  being  the  most  notorious 
instance  of  heartless  cruelty  under  show  of  law; 
but  it  Avas  everywhere.  Torture  to  extract  con- 
fession was  employed  by  the  authorities  in  the 
case  of  political  and  civil  criminals,  as  well  as 
ao-ainst  heretics.  The  Tower  of  London  and 
the  Bastile  of  Paris  had  their  dreadful  stories 
of  suffering  just  as  the  Spanish  Inquisition  had. 
Roman  Catholics  employed  torture,  and  so 
did  Protestants.  Freedom  of  conscience  was 
not  understood.  It  was  natural  that  the  age 
that  burned  and  drowned  old  women  on  charges 
of  witchcraft  should  inflict  the  death  penalty 
for  comparatively  minor  offences  against  prop- 


E ELATION   TO   DOCTRINE  179 

erty.  These  atrocities  were  often  perpetrated 
not  only  with  the  sanction  of  civil  law,  but  also 
Avith  the  alleged  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  an  age  that  dwelt 
more  in  the  Old  Testament  spirit  and  times 
than  in  the  sunlight  of  Christ,  the  Light  of  the 
World,  could  easily  drift  into  the  practising  of 
such  a  sanguinary  and  gloomy  criminal  code. 
But,  however  much  our  Christian  consciousness 
may  be  dismayed  and  shocked  as  we  look  back, 
however  much  some  of  the  purer  spirits  who 
lived  in  those  ages  of  cruelty  might  have  been 
morally  dismayed  at  the  deeds  .which  they  wit- 
nessed, let  us  remember  that  the  character  of 
God  is  not  at  stake.  We  see  all  around  us, 
now  as  well  as  then,  the  glaring  injustices  of 
the  present,  —  tlie  prosperity  of  the  wicked,  and 
the  misery  of  those  who  are  more  sinned  against 
than  sinning ;  but  we  take  refuge  in  that  future 
in  which  right  and  truth  will  be  vindicated,  and 
sorrows  will  be  healed,  and  tears  will  be  dried. 
It  is  another  problem  when  we  have  to  think  of 
children  and  of  the  heathen,  for  their  doom  is 
carried  into  that  future  which  puts  these  other 
wrongs  right.  It  is  not  only  carried  into  the 
future,  it  is  carried  into  an  endless  future. 


180       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

While  the  sterner  and  gloomier  view  of  reve- 
lation was  the  interpretation  of  the  majority  of 
the  theologians  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it 
cannot  be  asserted  that  the  larger  hope  was 
without  its  advocates  at  all  times.  In  "  Eu- 
doxa,"  by  John  Robinson,  doctor  of  physics, 
published  in  1658,  when  the  author  was  an  old 
man,  he  speaks  of  ''  The  universal  church  out  of 
Avliich  there  is  no  salvation:  And  of  this  uni- 
versal church  many  have  been  and  are  amongst 
the  pagans,  Turks,  and  remotest  heretics  saved 
by  a  way  unknown  to  us :  as  little  children  are 
said  to  believe :  Matt,  xviii.  6."  In  the  same 
treatise,  and  consistently  \vith  his  own  posi- 
tion, he  gives  a  definition  of  justification  which 
will  be  new  to  some  even  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  ''  Justification  does  not, 
as  some  will  urge,  always  presuppose  guilt ; 
it  sometimes  may  be  a  declaration  of  innocence." 
John  Dove,  who  published  a  book  in  1620,  in 
which  he  criticises  some  of  the  views  of  John 
Robinson  of  Leyden,  expresses  his  belief  in  the 
salvation  of  infants,  and  boldly  affirms  that  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin  is  an  invention  of  Rome. 
He  also  declares  that  God  reprobates  none  ex- 
cept those  who  reject  his  grace  offered  in  his  Son. 


RELATION   TO   DOCTRINE  181 

We  take  tlie  tlieology  of  the  century  follo\y- 
ing  the  Reformation  as  our  starting-point.  We 
find  two  lines  of  thought  concerning  the  fate  of 
infants  and  of  the  heathen.  The  extreme  Cal- 
vinism which  was  approved  of  by  the  great  ma- 
jority is  the  more  logical  of  the  tw^o  views. 
The  amelioration  of  tliis  view  tliat  has  come 
into  the  heart  of  Christendom  is  not  the  result 
of  new  data,  or  of  keener  logic,  or  of  more 
learned  interpretation  of  Scripture.  It  is  the 
result  of  tlie  larger  view  of  the  character  of 
God  revealed  in  and  to  us  by  tlie  Christian 
consciousness.  The  chano-e  in  tlie  hearts  and 
thoughts  of  men  as  to  the  salvation  of  the  little 
children  has  come  to  the  front  by  a  vigorous 
Ideating  against  the  stream.  Systematic  theol- 
ogy was  and  is  against  it.  The  doctrines  held 
by  the  churches  of  the  Reformation  were 
against  it,  while  their  opposition  took  different 
shapes.  The  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin  was  a 
millstone  round  the  neck  of  many  trembling 
ones.  The  popular  literature  clothed  the 
gloomy  shadows  with  an  unsparing  realism. 
The  change  has  come  not  from  a  change  of 
creed,  for  creeds  have  been  changed  but  little ; 
not  from  a  more  learned  exegesis,  for  the  theol- 


182       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

ogy  of  the  Reformation  is  exegetically  strong ; 
not  from  the  positive  teaching  from  the  jDulpit, 
for  so  far  the  pulpit  is  in  the  first  stage  of  in- 
evitable doctrinal  change,  —  it  is  silent  concern- 
ing the  old,  and  also  concerning  the  new;  it  has 
come  from  the  apprehension  and  comprehension 
of  the  character  of  God  ^  by  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. The  fate  of  the  heathen  is  to-day 
in  the  position  which  infant  salvation  held  in 
the  Christian  consciousness  fifty  years  ago.  It 
does  not  necessarily  follow  that  the  universal 
salvation  of  the  heathen  will  be  accepted  by  the 
Christian  consciousness. 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  age  which  evolved  the 
Puritan  and  hyper  Calvinistic  conception  of  the  character  of 
God,  also  elaborated  Milton's  Satan.  Considered  as  a  literary 
conception,  Satan  is  Milton's  grandest  character.  "He  has 
given  the  Devil  his  due,"  and  more  than  his  due;  and  the 
popular  conception  of  the  arch  enemy  of  man  is  a  compound 
of  the  devil  of  the  miracle  play,  the  Satan  of  Milton,  and  the 
Satan  of  Scripture.  The  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century 
could  not  do  justice  to  the  dignity  of  man.  His  Adam  is 
commonplace. 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CHURCH    183 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS  AND   WOMAN's 
PLACE   IN   THE   CHURCH 

Many  considerations  unite  to  give  much 
interest  to  the  study  of  the  relation  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  to  the  place  and  func- 
tions given  to  woman  in  the  Christian  church. 
It  is  a  doctrinal  question,  but  it  is  not  a  car- 
dinal doctrine.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that 
we  exhibit  a  tendency  to  lose  sight  of  it  as  a 
doctrine,  and  regard  it  as  being  a  question  of 
policy,  or  even  of  expediency.  Tlie  line  of 
cleavage  in  opinion  as  to  the  question  does  not 
separate  denominations  as  such,  but  it  has  more 
or  less  significance  in  all  denominations.  This 
whole  question  has  also  been  broadened  by  the 
advance  on  the  part  of  woman  being  all  along 
the  line  of  life.  In  politics,  in  moral  and  social 
reforms,  as  well  as  in  the  church,  she  occupies 
a  larger  field  than  ever  before.  While  the 
Christian  consciousness  has  to  do  with  her 
place  in  society,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  this 


184       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

is  primarily  and  principally  a  sociological  and 
ethical  problem.  But  when  we  discuss  the 
place  given  to  women  in  the  past,  and  won 
by  women  in  the  present,  in  church  life  and 
work,  Ave  are  on  distinctively  Christian  terri- 
tory ;  and  the  question  becomes  at  once  doc- 
trinal, moral,  and  ethical.  It  is  in  the  province 
of  the  Christian  consciousness.  From  what  has 
been  said  in  some  of  the  preceding  chapters  of 
this  book,  it  will  be  evident  that,  no  matter 
what  the  personal  opinion  of  the  author  on  this 
question  may  be,  in  the  study  of  it  as  related  to 
the  Christian  consciousness  our  object  is  not  to 
support  or  to  attack  this  movement  for  the  eman- 
cipation of  tlie  sex,  commonly  called  the  weaker. 
Nor  is  it  necessary  that  we  should  critically 
examine  the  argument  from  Scripture.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  have  no  liesitation  in  the 
expression  of  my  personal  belief  and  conviction 
that,  so  far  as  the  logic  of  the  matter  is  con- 
cerned, the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United 
States  was  consistently  right  in  taking  to  task 
a  prominent  divine,  still  living,  for  admitting  a 
woman  into  his  pulpit.  This  matter  is  not 
new.  It  has  always  been  in  the  clnirch.  The 
teaching  of  Paul  is  explicit  and  definite.    There 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CHURCH    185 

was  an  exception  to  his  rule  wliicli  lie  himself 
tacitly  recognizes,  and  which  the  church  lias 
always  been,  on  sufficient  evidence,  ready  to 
recognize.  This  exception  is  the  recognition 
of  the  divine  afflatus  and  inspiration  ^  descend- 
ing upon  a  woman,  and  thus  giving  lier  a  com- 
mission which  set  aside  all  earthly  rules;  bnt 
this  was  made  the  exception  which  proved  the 
rule.  Miriam,  Deborah,  and  Anna  in  sacred 
story,  and  possibly  some  names  in  profane  his- 
tory, might  be  added  as  illustrating  the  pro- 
phetic utterance.  But  the  Pauline  dictum  was 
the  rule. 

Macaulay,  in  his  review  of  Von  Ranke's  "His- 
tory of  the  Popes,"  draws  attention,  with  all  his 
usual  eloquence,  to  the  wisdom  of  Rome  in 
providing  moral  and  spiritual  safety-valves  for 
devout  and  enthusiastic  women.  Like  all  the 
rest  of  the  world,  she  knew  that  woman's  place 
was  in  the  home,  where  she  could  influence  for 
good  the  coarser  nature  of  the  husband,  and 
train  her  children  to  be  good  Christians  and 
good  citizens;  but  there  were* many  women  who 
were  practically  homeless.  They  had  neither 
husband  nor  children.     And  there  were  others 

1  Joel  ii.  28,  29. 


186       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

whose  hearts  were  buried  in  the  graves  of  their 
beloved  dead,  and  in  their  souls  they  shrank 
from  the  possibility  of  another  earthly  love  like 
this  buried  love.  And  there  were  still  others 
who  were  stirred  with  other  ambitions  and 
other  longings,  and  home  life  and  home  duties 
of  the  ordinary  routine  could  not  hold  them. 
Rome,  in  her  wisdom,  made  provision  for  such 
cases.  The  cloistered  nun  could  shut  out  the 
world  of  which  she  was  a-wearj^  and  in  prayer 
and  vigil  pass  her  days,  or  with  nimble  fingers 
and  deft  skill  she  sewed  altar  cloths  and  priestly 
vestments.  The  teaching  nun  could  devote 
herself  to  a  life  that  w^as  at  once  religious  and 
practical,  while  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  were  the 
trained  nurses  of  the  past.  To  be  sure,  the 
church  blundered  occasionally,  and  women  blun- 
dered occasionally. 

It  would  have  been  better  for  Jeanne  d'Arc 
if  she  had  remained  quietly  with  her  few  sheep 
in  the  wilderness,  but  it  would  not  have  been  as 
well  for  France.  The  fifteenth  century  burns 
her  as  a  heretic,  and  the  nineteenth  canonizes 
her.  But  it  was  simply  impossible  for  the 
Maid  of  Orleans  to  stay  at  home.  Abraham 
had  to  move  at  the  Divine  Voice.     The  magi 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CHURCH    187 

must  follow  the  star,  and  Jeanne  bad  to  run  on 
God's  errand.  When  women  in  the  bosom  of 
Protestantism  felt  this  tugging  at  their  heart- 
strings, for  over  two  centuries,  they  had  to  sit 
still  in  the  bitterness  of  defeat,  or  they  had  to 
risk  their  social  standing  and  fair  fame. 

Robinson  of  Leyden,  of  Pilgrim  Father  fame, 
was,  for  his  time,  a  liberal  and  fair-minded 
man.  His  testimony  is  significant.  The  church 
in  London  had  written  to  Robinson  and  to  his 
church  about  several  things  ;  among  the  others, 
this  question  as  to  woman's  place  in  the  church. 
His  reply  is  dated  at  Leyden,  fifth  April,  1624. 
To  their  specific  question  "whether  women 
have  voices  with  men  in  the  judgment  of  the 
church,"  he  replies :  "  The  apostle  teacheth 
plainly  the  contrary  (Cor.  xiv.  34  ;  1  Tim.  ii. 
14)  ;  and  though  he  speaks  particularlie  of 
prophesying  and  teaching,  yet  layes  he  down  a 
more  general  rule,  forbidding  all  such  speaking 
as  in  which  authority  is  used,  that  is  usurped 
over  the  man,  which  is  done  speciallie  in  judg- 
ments. And  if  a  w^oman  may  not  so  much  as 
move  a  question  in  the  church  for  her  instruc- 
tion, how  much  less  may  she  give  a  voice,  or 
utter  reproof  for  censure."     In  another  work. 


188       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

"  The  People's  Plea,"  he  grants  that  slie  may 
teach  outside  the  church,  as  tlie  woman  of 
Samaria  did.  The  prohibition  as  regards  women 
is  in  his  opinion  perpetual. 

The  histor}^  of  the  emancipation  of  woman 
lias  3^et  to  be  written  ;  and  when  it  finds  a  worthy 
historian,  the  world  will  have  an  opportunity  of 
studying  a  social,  moral,  and  doctrinal  evolution 
of  a  very  instructive  character.  Ordinary 
school  teaching  was  almost  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  men,  not  only  in  mixed  schools,  but  also  in 
those  devoted  to  the  education  of  girls.  The 
dames'  school  for  little  children  was  tolerated. 
That  the  wife  of  the  teacher  in  the  higher  class 
school  should  assist  her  husband  was  tolerated, 
just  as  the  storekeeper's  or  shopkeeper's  wife 
could  assist  her  husband,  or  the  daughter  her 
father,  long  before  they  had  advanced  to  the 
freedom  of  hiring  female  assistants.  The  in- 
vasion of  the  common  or  district  schools  of  New 
England  by  women  was  an  unheralded  and 
noiseless  revolution  ;  and  more  and  more  of  the 
work  of  teaching  both  sexes  is  being  done 
by  Avomen.  The  opening  of  other  avenues 
of  usefulness  was  a  question  of  time,  and  time 
was  on  their  side ;  but  their  champions  of  their 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  FN   THE  CHURCH    189 

own  and  of  the  other  sex  had  their  work  cut  out 
for  them  by  an  unsparing  criticism,  which,  when 
other  argument  failed,  could  always  fall  back, 
and  very  frequently  did  fall  back,  upon  that 
moral  and  social  scarecrow  which  was  called  an 
unsexed  woman.  But  woman  won  her  way ;  and 
it  is  only  due  to  her  place  in  this  great  social 
evolution  to  testify  to  the  dignity  and  purity  of 
the  great  leaders.  It  is  natural  and  to  be  ex- 
pected that  any  propaganda  of  this  kind  will 
draw  to  it  the  erratic,  and  those  whose  zeal  out- 
runs their  discretion  ;  but  there  has  been  less 
extravagance,  less  "  bad  form,"  as  the  Avorld 
puts  it,  in  this  movement  than  in  the  total  ab- 
stinence crusade,  or  in  the  abolition  movement. 
The  church  helped  on  the  work  by  laying  all 
unconsciously  certain  broad  and  deep  founda- 
tions. Sunday-schools  must  be  taught ;  and 
there  was  too  often  a  dearth  of  men,  and  an 
abundance  of  willing  female  teachers  ;  and  so 
they  took  a  prominent  place  in  the  Sunday- 
school.  Missionaries  had  wives  ;  and  these  good 
women  not  only  helped  their  husbands,  but 
they  wrote  home  sad  stories  of  their  heathen 
sisters'  ignorance,  and  of  the  almost  impossibility 
of  the  missionary  being  able  to  approach  them. 


190       THE  CHEISTIA'^   CONSCIOUSNESS 

Sex  was  an  impossible  barrier  to  this  zenana  or 
liarem  life.  Tlien,  why  not  send  out  women 
missionaries,  who  could  mingle  with  their  sister 
women,  and  teach  to  them  and  preach  to  them 
the  story  of  the  Cross  ?  They  were  sent ;  and 
after  a  few  years'  service  they  came  back  on 
furlough,  and  told  to  delighted  audiences  of 
women  their  story  of  work  done  ;  and  ere  long 
they  addressed  mixed  audiences,  and  were  even 
invited  to  occupy  the  pulpits  on  Sunday  to  give 
information  concerning  their  work.  To  form 
women's  missionary  societies  at  home,  with 
their  own  managers,  secretaries,  and  treasurers, 
was  an  easy  and  natural  step ;  for  should  they 
not  work  for  and  coj-respond  Avith  their  sisters 
who  Avere  at  the  front  in  this  holy  war  ?  It  was 
only  one  step  more  for  women  to  study  medi- 
cine, whether  to  practise  at  home  or  to  be 
medical  missionaries  in  India.  If  any  one 
imagines  that  all  these  developments  came  about 
easily  and  naturally,  they  have  only  to  read  the 
current  religious  newspapers  of  those  times  to 
know  that  every  inch  of  the  ground  was  gained 
very  quietly,  but  in  the  face  of  opposition. 

It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  woman  to  make 
this  a  selfish  fight.     She  sought  her  own  rights. 


W03IAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CUUliCII    191 

lier  own  enfranchisement,  and  she  is  seeking 
them  now,  in  so  far  as  they  are  not  yet  secured ; 
but  the  organized  action  of  woman  in  favor  of 
social  purity  and  of  Christian  temperance  gives 
them  a  prominent  place  among  the  social  re- 
formers of  the  day. 

But  perhaps  the  most  far-reaching  and  signifi- 
cant movement  affecting  woman's  place  in  the 
church  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  The  Young 
People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  has 
been  heartily  accepted  and  adopted  by  the  vari- 
ous denominations ;  and  even  those  denomina- 
tions that  have  not  seen  fit  to  join  this  army, 
and  march  under  its  banner,  have  paid  it 
the  sincere  homage  of  imitation,  and  have 
banded  their  young  people  together  on  almost 
similar  lines  of  constitution  and  of  Avork.  Now, 
this  organization  recognizes  the  absolute  equal- 
ity of  the  sexes  in  taking  part  in  speaking  and 
in  praying,  in  holding  ofHce,  and  in  conducting 
their  services.  In  passing,  attention  may  be 
called  to  the  fact,  that  a  similar  condition  of 
affairs  exists  in  the  Salvation  Arm}-.  Is  it  not 
reasonable  and  to  be  expected  that  the  lessons 
learned  in  the  ranks  of  tlie  Christian  Endeavor 
Society  will  be,  ere  long,  carried  forward  into 


192       THE  CHlilSTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

the  other  departments  of  church  life  and  work  ? 
Onl}^  a  few  years  ago,  and  the  doors  of  all  our 
great  universities  were  closed  to  women.  Co- 
education and  university  training  are  now,  to 
a  large  extent,  within  the  reach  of  women  in 
England  and  America.  If  some  ambitious  and 
devout  Salvation  lass,  or  Christian  Endeavor 
young  woman,  should  knock  at  the  doors  of 
our  great  theological  schools,  where,  in  wisdom, 
in  fairness,  or  by  all  analogy,  can  the  line 
be  drawn?  and  when  intellectually  and  spirit- 
ually equipped  for  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
Avhat  then?  The  ranks  of  law  and  medicine 
have  been  successfully  invaded,  and  wdiy  should 
not  the  ranks  of  the  preachers  also  open  and 
welcome  the  elect  and  consecrated  Avoman? 
You  quote  St.  Paul.  Of  course  he  w^ould  be 
quoted  and  interpreted,  and  church  history 
would  be  searched,  as  it  has  been,  and  the 
deliverances  of  synods  and  conferences  and 
assemblies  would  be  quoted;  but  the  jewel 
of  consistency  has  been  thrown  away  by  the 
church.  If  her  exegesis  of  St.  Paul  is  correct, 
she  has  conceded  far  too  much  already.  In 
fact,  the  church  in  Britain  and  in  America  is 
responsible  for  the  advanced  stage  of  this  ques- 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CHURCH    193 

tion  about  the  rights  of  woman,  even  if  there 
is  not  a  disposition  to  take  the  credit  of  the 
work.  This  beginning  with  the  church  is  a 
liopeful  sign,  a  veritable  token  for  good  in  this 
cause.  The  order  in  Avhich  a  revolution  evolves 
indicates,  and  in  a  sense  determines,  its  charac- 
ter. The  French  Revolution  was  first  social, 
then  political,  and  thirdly  religious.  The  Eng- 
lish Revolution  was  first  religious,  second  social, 
and  third  political.  The  French  Revolution 
produced  Revolution  number  two  in  1848,  and 
the  miserable  beginning  and  ending  of  Louis 
Napoleon.  The  English  Revolution  produced 
the  Reform  Bill  and  the  Victorian  era.  It  is 
a  sign  for  good,  and  a  promise  of  success  — 
this  beginning  of  the  emancipation  of  woman 
in  the  church. 

While  the  whole  question  of  woman's  place 
in  the  life  and  work  in  the  church,  as  well  as  in 
the  political  arena  and  in  the  social  sphere,  is 
still,  as  it  were,  on  trial,  it  w^ill  be  conceded  by 
those  who  have  given  it  earnest  study  and 
attention,  that  much  has  been  gained,  not 
because  of  current  or  past  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  but  against  it.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness has  thus  far  been  on  tlie  side  of  this 


194       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

movement.  It  has  given  its  sanction  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  it  has  done  its  part  in  cre- 
ating the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  popular  phrase, 
'■'It  is  in  the  air,"  is  accepted  as  explaining 
much ;  but  Avhile  it  is  a  very  graphic  description 
of  a  condition  of  things,  it  explains  nothing.  A 
correct  science  of  physical  or  moral  existence 
seeks  after  the  efficient  cause  or  causes  of  phe- 
nomena. Whence  came  this  nebulous  and  par- 
tially defined  thing  that  is  in  the  air?  Its 
existence,  perhaps,  can  be  accounted  for.  So- 
cial and  moral  evolution  take  us  back  very  near 
to  the  origin,  but  they  do  not  explain  the  gene- 
sis of  it.  Benjamin  Kidd  will  tell  us  that  it 
is  not  in  the  nature  of  man,  the  stronger,  to  part 
with  any  of  his  power  or  privilege  to  woman, 
the  weaker ;  and  that  he  does  so  only  because  of 
the  ethical  compulsion  of  the  ultra-rational  sanc- 
tion which  religion  provides,  and  which  causes 
this  altruism.  We  can  accept  all  this,  with  the 
addition  that  the  altruistic  sentiment  has  its 
orior-in  in  the  Christian  consciousness.  Pro- 
fessor  Drummond  exalts  the  evolution  of  love, 
and  in  consistence  vrith  his  philosophy  will 
show  how  man  rises  by  slow  degrees  to  do 
iustice  to  those  Avhom  he  loves.     We  can  accept 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CHURCH    195 

this  also,  and  add  that  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness opens  the  blind  eyes  of  love,  and  enables  it 
to  see  duty  and  justice. 

A  good  many  years  ago  George  MacDonald 
said  that  it  was  not  for  man  to  say  what 
woman  should  do  and  should  not  do.  It  was 
for  women  themselves  to  determine  what  was 
right  and  what  was  wrong.  As  we  quote 
from  memory,  there  is  no  approach  to  verbal 
accuracy  in  this  reference ;  and,  of  course,  there 
is  the  danger  of  even  misstating  the  sentiment. 
He  maintains  that  good  women  will  find  out 
Avhat  is  their  province.  This  suggests  an  in- 
teresting method  of  arriving  at  results.  Sup- 
pose the  question  at  issue  were  whether  or 
not  women  should  have  every  suffrage  that 
man  possesses  in  political  life.  They  vote 
as  to  whether  or  not  they  want  to  vote.  In 
such  a  case  a  majority  of  those  wlio  cast  their 
votes  would  not  be  a  satisfactory  settlement, 
because  it  can  readily  be  supposed  that  those 
opposed  to  voting  would  decline  to  vote,  even 
on  this  general  issue.  But  if  a  majorit}^  of 
the  wliole  were  to  signify  their  desire  to  pos- 
sess the  suffrage,  by  what  right,  but  that  of 
the  strongest,   would  man  refuse  to  accede  to 


196       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

their  request.  Slioiild  a  case  arise  in  the 
church,  and  the  desire  of  women  to  exercise 
any  function  now  denied  to  them,  be  clearly 
expressed,  this  wisli  of  Christian  women  would 
be  an  expression  of  the  results  arrived  at  b}^ 
their  Cluistian  consciousness.  Suppose  such 
an  issue  to  come,  and  the  result  were  to  dem- 
onstrate that  the  Christian  consciousness  of  men 
was  opposed  to  the  Christian  consciousness  of 
women.  Who  would  decide?  and  to  what  final 
court  of  appeal  could  the  conflicting  parties  go  ? 
An  old-fashioned  proverb  speaks  of  the  folly 
of  jumping  the  fence  before  we  come  to  it. 
Such  a  case  has  not  yet  emerged. 

Manv  advocates  of  women's  rio-hts  in  the 
church  and  in  the  state  would  not  be  pre- 
pared to  accept  some  of  the  positions  indicated. 
With  a  good  show  of  reason  they  would  argue 
that,  though  the  majority  of  women  were  not 
in  favor  of  women  practising  law  or  medicine, 
or  of  voting  for  political  offices,  that  is  not 
sufficient  reason  for  those  Avho  wished  to  do 
so  having  the  privilege  or  right  t.Jven  from 
them.  Tliey  migiit  say  that  it  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  majorities,  but  a  question  of  inalienable 
right.     But  tlie  inalienable  right        ^t  has  not 


WOMAN'S   PLACE  IN    THE   CJIUnCU    197 

the  sanction  and  permission  of  the  majority 
is  not  in  the  field  of  practical  life.  The  right 
that  is  enjoyed  by  suffrance,  whether  it  be 
the  ricrht  of  the  early  Christians  to  meet  for 
worship  with  the  sliadow  of  paganism  on  them, 
or  the  right  of  the  women  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  vote  for  members  of  Congress,  may 
be  enjoyed,  and  may  be  a  source  of  gratifica- 
tion ;  but  it  only  emphasizes  the  capricious 
tyranny  that  bestows  it.  There  is  no  ultimate 
social  or  ethical  good  in  it.  Women's  Rights 
is,  after  all,  the  correct  term.  In  the  region 
of  the  spiritual,  the  Christian  consciousness 
discerns  rights  and  demands  rights.  Privi- 
leges can  take  care  of  themselves.  A  half- 
loaf  is  often  better  than  no  bread,  but  tlie 
right  that  is  conferred  as  a  privilege  is  a  kind 
of  moral  insult. 

The  reader  of  "  Gesta  Christi,"  by  Charles 
Loring  Brace,  Avill  find  a  very  interesting  chap- 
ter on  ''  The  Position  of  Woman  under  Modern 
Influences ;  "  and,  although  the  author  of  that 
interesting  work  does  not  draw^  special  atten- 
tion to  the  fact,  it  is  nevertheless  obvious 
that  every  step  in  advance  that  has  been  gained 
by  woman   towards   the   Christian   idea  of   her 


198       THE  CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

perfect  equality  with  man  in  rights  and  in  re- 
sponsibilities has  been  secured  grudgingly  and 
unwillingly  from  man.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness which  secured  the  ultra-rational  al- 
truistic sentiment  was  a  moral  compulsion 
before  which  the  triple  walls  of  strength,  self- 
ishness, and  custom  had  to  fall. 

It  is  often  claimed  that  there  are  two  re- 
markable exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  —  in 
the  case  of  woman  in  religious  communities, 
and  woman  in  the  age  of  chivalry.  I  think 
the  exceptions  are  more  imaginary  than  real. 
In  the  seclusion  of  the  religious  community, 
there  was  self-government  subject  to  the  su- 
premacy of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the 
other  sex.  The  outer  world  for  centuries  hon- 
ored them  for  the  sake  of  their  work  and  life. 
They  let  tlie  world  alone  ;  and  tlie  Avorld  let 
them  alone,  except  when  their  broad  acres  and 
fair  possessions  stirred  the  cupidity  of  some 
robber  baron,  until  he  braved  the  church  and 
risked  his  soul  for  the  sake  of  present  pos- 
session. 

The  age  of  chivalry  has  around  it  the  glamour 
of  romance,  and  it  has  proved  a  veritable  mine 
of  wealth  to  all  writers  of  the  romantic  school. 


WOMAN'S  PLACE  IN   THE  CUURCII    199 

Even  the  sao-e  historians  seem  at  times  to  revel 
in  it,  and  to  regard  it  as  an  oasis  in  a  dreary 
desert  of  superstition,  violence,  and  bloodshed. 
And  this  not  without  reason  ;  for  so  long  as 
barons,  kniglits,  and  squires  exalted  women, 
paying  sometimes  a  fanciful,  and  sometimes  a 
real  reverence,  as  in  a  boy's  game  where  it  is 
hard  to  tell  where  make-believe  ends  and  reality 
begins,  the  love  was  idealized  that  might  easily 
have  been  brutalized ;  and  the  lower  ranks  of 
society,  ever  read}-  to  copy  from  their  social 
superiors,  would  learn  something  of  courtesy.^ 
"  To  chivalry  woman  is  indebted  in  the  Middle 
Ages  for  a  position  she  had  never  before  enjoyed 
in  history,  which  gave  her  a  charm  almost 
unknown  till  then,  and  which  spread  over  a 
society  steeped  in  barbarism  a  grace  and  re- 
finement that  have  come  down  to  our  day." 
But  after  all,  chivalry  made  women  the  counters 
with  wdiich  men  played  at  a  game  called  chiv- 
alry. The  tournament  and  the  lists  were  a 
combination  of  the  modern  duel  and  athletic 
sports,  and  the  knight-errant  was  not  always 
the  hero  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  delights  to 
portray.     He   was    too  often    a  soldier  of   for- 

1  Gesta  Cliristi,  page  284. 


200       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

tune,  a  skilled  swordsman,  who  was  to  the 
Middle  Ages  what  the  gladiator  Avas  to  the 
Roman,  what  the  prize-ring  and  college  foot- 
ball are  to  nineteenth  century  civilization. 

The  benefit  that  it  was  to  woman  was  in- 
cidental and  accidental.  Chivalry  refined  man- 
ners, but  it  did  not  accelerate  justice.  There 
was  no  Christian  consciousness  in  it.  But  to- 
day the  Christian  consciousness  has  done  its 
work,  and  woman  has  a  place,  and  exercises 
functions,  in  the  most  conservative  ecclesiasti- 
cal bodies,  which  would  have  been  promptly 
refused  her  fifty  years  ago;  and  the  refusal 
would  have  been,  and  actually  w^as,  based  upon 
the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  which  bore 
upon  her  case.  The  old  exegesis  was  sound. 
It  is  as  good  now  as  it  was  then.  The  silence 
of  confessions,  catechisms,  books  of  discipline, 
and  articles  of  religion,  on  this  question  —  the 
comparative  silence  —  is  accounted  for  by  the 
simple  fact  that  the  necessity  for  any  strong 
declaration  Avas  not  even  dreamed  of.  The 
Christian  consciousness  has  been  at  Avork,  and 
changes  have  been  possible  that  have  not  been 
sanctioned  in  any  other  way.  The  end  is  not 
yet.      Meanwhile,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the 


WOMAN'S   PLACE   IN   TUE  CUUliCH    201 

effort  being  made  by  that  class  of  interpreters 
who  begin  by  opposing  a  new  movement,  and 
have  scarcely  finished  their  effort  to  show  that 
it  is  unscriptural,  when  they  awake  to  the  fact 
that  this  intruder  has  come  to  stay.  Then  it  is 
in  order  to  reconstruct  their  interpretation  of 
Scripture  on  the  question;  and  if  tlie  hands 
would  go  backward  on  the  world  clock,  they, 
too,  could  fall  back  on  their  former  exegesis. 


202       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS    AND   THE 
SIXTH    COMMANDMENT 

Man  has  been  defined  as  a  fighting  animal ; 
and  the  most  perplexing  problem  in  moral  and 
social  evolution  as  well  as  in  the  function  of 
the  Christian  consciousness,  is  presented  to  us 
by  his  readiness,  in  sport  or  in  earnest,  for 
pecuniary  gain  or  for  reputation,  in  proof  of 
innocence  or  in  desire  for  revencre,  to  fio-ht 
with  and  to  kill  some  other  man.  The  tliirst 
for  blood,  for  exhibitions  of  physical  and  men- 
tal horrors  in  the  arena,  went  hand  in  hand 
in  Rome  with  the  enjoyment  of  undisguised 
sensuality  and  indecency.  Christianity  waged 
war  against  this  spirit  and  practice  of  tlie  age; 
but  the  evil  that  appeals,  not  only  to  the  baser 
passions  of  man,  but  also  to  sentiments  that 
are  akin  to  virtue,  dies  hard.  Why  should 
we  express  any  surprise  at  its  taking  the 
church  so  long  to  suppress  the  bloody  scenes 
of  the  amphitheatre  in  Rome  and  in  the  great 


THE  SIXTH  COMMANDMENT  203 

provincial  cities?  It  was  an  evil  inheritance 
which  had  come  down  through  centuries  of 
heathenism.  The  Decalogue  thundered,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  kill ;  "  and  Jesus  gave  the  positive 
command,  "Therefore,  all  things  whatsoever 
ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them ;  "  ^  but  the  red  stream  of  inno- 
cent blood  has  ever  been  flowing.  It  began 
at  the  gates  of  Eden,  and  flowed  on  and  on,  a 
river  of  death,  until  the  blood  shed  at  Calvary 
fell  into  it;  and  the  river  is  still  flowing,  and 
greedily  drinking  up  the  blood  of  the  many 
murdered  for  robbery's  sake,  or  in  the  duel, 
or  in  the  sport  that  Avantonly  and  uselessly 
risks  man's  life,  or  in  that  game  of  war  which 
makes  Europe  a  vast  camp  of  armed  men. 

In  Christian  Eui'ope,  every  Christmas  morn- 
ing comes  witli  its  story  of  the  Prince  of  peace ; 
and  its  joy-bells  ring  in  the  ears  of  five  million 
Christians  of  a  real  or  nominal  kind,  who  are 
armed  and  willing,  sometimes  anxious,  to  fly 
at  each  otlier's  throats.  The  poet  says  tliat, 
"Were  the  people  wiser,  war  is  a  game  kings 
would  not  play  at ; "  but  the  pity  of  it  is  that 
the  people  seem  to  be  as  fond  of  it  as  are  the 
kings. 

1  Matt.  vii.  12. 


204       THE   CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  United  Slates,  removed  from  the  arena 
of  Enro2)ean  conflict  and  interests,  with  a  con- 
tinent so  great  in  extent  and  in  variety  of  cli- 
mate and  of  natural  products  that  there  was  no 
need  of  war  for  enlarging  her  territory,  seemed 
to  be  the  one  nation  that  could  dispense  with  a 
vast  standing  army  and  have  no  dread  of  war; 
and  yet  perhaps  the  most  religious  and  the 
most  intelligent  nation  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  so  far  as  the  general  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge is  concerned,  drifts  into  a  war,  an  inter- 
necine war,  of  unparalleled  dimensions.  After 
the  hot  carnage  of  four  years,  peace  came 
from  the  exhaustion  of  one  of  the  combatants  ; 
and  the  nation  resumes  its  interrupted  life, 
and  with  the  real  cause  of  the  strife,  slavery, 
abolished.  A  marvellous  spectacle  truly  ;  but 
more  wonderful  still  is  the  fact  that  thirty 
years  after  the  strife  is  over,  both  parties  pro- 
fess to  glory  in  the  part  that  they  or  their 
fathers  took,  and  the  divisions  among  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Prince  of  peace  which  had  tlieir 
origin  in  this  Cain  and  Abel  fight  are  in  exist- 
ence still.  This  is  a  moral  and  religious  prob- 
lem which  might  be  studied  more  earnestly 
w^ith  advantage  to  the   cause   of  religion. 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT  205 

"  Peace  on  earth"  was  the  song  of  the  host 
at  tlie  Annunciation.  While  we  do  not  mini- 
mize the  good  that  has  been  accomplished,  the 
peace  that  has  been  promoted  between  factions 
and  nations  by  the  genius  of  Christianity,  —  the 
strifes  that  have  been  healed  have  been  many, 
and  peace  that  passeth  understanding  has 
come  to  longing  souls  in  every  age,  —  yet,  in  its 
larger  outlook,  Christianity  has  been  more  of 
a  failure  in  this  thing  of  which  the  angels  sang 
than  in  any  other  department  of  morals.  So 
much  is  this  the  case,  so  obviously  is  it  true, 
that  many  writers  on  morals  and  on  social 
and  political  economy  have  tried  to  prove 
that  war  is  unavoidable,  is  necessary,  is  prof- 
itable to  civilization  as  a  whole.  They  hold 
that  it  is  quite  proper  that  the  Christian 
should  add  to  his  good  fight  of  faith  against 
spiritual  foes,  a  good  deal  of  readiness  for 
war  in  general.  To  prove  that  an  overrul- 
ing Providence  sometimes  brings  good  out  of 
war,  as  he  does  out  of  other  forms  of  evil,  is 
simply  a  demonstration  of  the  happy  trutli 
that  he  can  make  tlie  wrath  of  man  to  praise 
liim.  The  greater  contains  the  less.  If  it  is 
right   for   Germany  and   France    to   go  to   war 


206       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

to  settle  a  difficulty,  why  should  it  be  wrong 
for  the  individual  Frenchman  and  German  to 
settle  their  personal  dispute  by  war  which 
may  take  the  shape  of  assassination  or  of  the 
duel,  and  yet  resemble  national  warfare  ?  We 
are  told  that  these  belligerent  individuals  are 
inexcusable  because  they  have  legal  redress, 
and  at  once  can  have  recourse  to  it.  But  this 
assurance  at  once  causes  one  to  wonder  how 
it  comes  to  pass  that  nineteen  centuries  of 
Christianity  have  not  devised  a  court  of  arbi- 
tration to  wdiich  nations  could  resort,  and  the 
decisions  of  which  could  be  enforced. 

The  church  of  history  has  in  a  feeble  and 
half-hearted  manner  been  on  the  side  of 
peace.  There  has  alwa3^s  existed  a  certain 
amount  of  Christian  consciousness  in  favor 
of  peace,  but  it  took  a  long  time  for  it  to 
find  expression  in  the  "  Peace  Society."  And 
when  the  society  was  at  last  evolved,  it  was 
in  advance  of  the  age,  as  witness  the  ridicule 
which  was  heaped  upon  its  efforts  by  a  kirge 
part  of  the  public  press.  It  concerned  no 
dogma  whicli  divided  sects,  unless,  indeed, 
we  ought  to  give  due  credit  to  all  the  sects 
of  the   quietists  who  conscientiously  refuse  to 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT  207 

fitrht.      It    did    not    come    to    the    hearts    and 

o 

homes  of  men  as  slavery  or  intemperance  did. 
The  young  hero  going  to  the  wars,  and  the 
old  veteran  covered  with  medals,  scars,  and 
glory,  were  both  good  to  look  upon.  War 
Avas  linked  to  patriotism  and  personal  cour- 
age, and  these  are  words  to  conjure  with. 
Wlien  one  man  kills  another  for  an  acre  of 
ground  in  dispute  between  them,  the  sooner 
the  hangman  is  called  in  the  better  for  society ; 
but  when  opposing  armies  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men  decimate  each  other's  ranks  about 
some  trivial  territory  or  debatable  point  of 
honor,  call  it  glory,  burn  bonfires,  ring  joy- 
bells,  reward  the  survivors,  praise  the  dead 
heroes,  and  make  ready  for  another  fight. 
Meanwhile,  let  us  sing  and  preach  and  pra}^ 
about  the  Prince  of  peace,  for  we  are  Christian 
nations. 

Not  only  was  there  little  or  no  Christian 
consciousness  in  favor  of  enforcing  the  sixth 
command  of  the  Decalogue,  it  was  almost 
altogether  ignored.  Tlie  death  penalty  Avas 
inflicted  for  comparatively  trifling  offences 
against  property;  and  when  the  laws  wliich 
made   so    little    of   human   life   were  gradually 


208       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

taken  from  the  statute-book,  it  was  the  se- 
verity of  the  punishment  more  than  any  con- 
sideration of  the  inherent  dignity  and  value 
of  life  as  life,  which  led  to  the  amelioration. 

The  judicial  combat  was  on  the  crude  sup- 
jjosition  that  the  divine  judgment  would  be 
indicated  by  the  result  of  tlie  duel  between  tlie 
parties.  If  tliis  appeal  had  taken  the  form  of 
drawing  lots  as  to  which  of  the  combatants 
should  commit  suicide,  tliere  would  have  been 
lottery  in  it.  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked that  Providence  usually  seemed  to  be 
on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  artillery  ;  and  in  an 
age  when  physical  strength  had  so  much  to  do 
with  the  result  of  the  fight,  the  absurdity  of 
this  form  of  settlement  of  personal  feud  must 
have  been  painfully  apparent.  It  was  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  old  practice  of  the  avenger  of  blood ; 
and  the  church,  with  her  rights  of  asylum  and 
sanctuary,  was  to  the  feudal  times  what  the 
city  of  refuge  was  to  the  Israelite  in  the  time  of 
the  Judges.  The  judicial  duel  spread  through 
Europe ;  and  tlie  churcli  spoke  against  it  for 
two  hundred  years  before  we  find  any  civil 
enactment  against  it.  The  judicial  duel  did 
not  altogether  disappear  until  the  seventeenth 


THE  SIXTH   COMMANDMENT  209 

century.  In  fact,  the  wager  of  battle  in  certain 
cases  came  down  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century ;  and  it  was  not  legally  abolished 
in  England  until  1819.  The  case  in  which  it 
was  so  long  permitted  was  the  right  to  chal- 
lenge any  one  acquitted  of  murder  to  the  ordeal 
of  single  combat,  the  challenger  being  a  relative 
of  the  murdered  person. 

The  duel,  the  so-called  field  of  honor,  survives 
in  all  Christian  countries,  and  only  in  some  of 
them  is  it  illegal.  It  has  been  said  of  it, 
"  That  there  is  no  foolish  thing  so  wicked,  and 
no  wicked  thing  so  foolish."  When  the  results 
are  notoriously  harmless,  as  in  certain  encoun- 
ters in  France,  all  the  world  laughs.  When 
good  men  are  killed  by  less  worthy  foes,  all 
the  world  cries  shame,  and  declares  that  tlie 
duelist  is  only  a  remove  from  the  assassin. 
But  the  practice  continues,  and  personal  honor 
is  the  plea  and  excuse  and  justification.  The 
prize-ring  in  England  was  quite  as  dangerous 
an  institution  as  was  the  duel  in  France  and 
Germany.  British  and  American  college  boys 
run  more  risk  of  personal  injury  in  the  foot- 
ball field  than  do  the  much  padded  and  care- 
fully protected  members  of  the  fighting  corps 


210        THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

of  certain  German  universities.  Pugilism  dies 
hard  in  English  schools  and  in  English  and 
American  athletics.  The  spice  of  danger, 
whether  in  riding  after  fox-hounds  or  in  hunt- 
ing tigers,  is  the  exciting  and  pleasurable  ele- 
ment in  the  sport.  In  providing  amusement 
for  tlie  public,  every  showman  knows  that  the 
feat  that  attracts  is  one  in  which  the  performer 
not  only  shows  skill,  but  runs  the  risk  of  break- 
ing his  neck.  We  all  like  to  sup  on  horrors  of 
some  kind  or  other.  Let  us  confess  it:  we 
are  a  fighting  race.  The  blood  of  w^arlike  Nor- 
mans and  pirate  Danes  and  stubborn  Saxons 
and  fiery  Celts  is  in  our  veins ;  and  in  our  secret 
souls  cowardice  is  worse  than  minor  crime. 
Tlie  thoughtless  infliction  of  cruelty,  and  the 
stoical  enduring  of  it  when  it  comes  to  ourselves, 
is  in  the  nature  of  us. 

In  the  case  of  slavery  and  intemperance  (in 
morals),  and  also  in  the  case  of  the  salvation 
of  infants  and  of  the  heathen  (in  doctrine), 
we  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Christian 
consciousness  asserted  its  sway,  and  brought 
positive  convictions  and  moral  certainty,  where 
from  the  standpoint  of  biblical  exegesis  and 
criticism     there    w^as     room    for     diversity    of 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT  211 

oj)inion.     But   here    we    have    a  positive   com- 
inandinent,    one    of    the     ten,    habitually    dis- 
reo-arded  both  in  its  letter  and  in  its  spirit.     I 
knew  a   small    boy    who  was,  when   at  school, 
quite    ready   and  willing  to   gratify  the   desire 
of  the  older  i)upils  to  get   up   a  fight.     Wlien 
that  boy  went  home  bearing  marks  of  the  fray, 
if  he  had  been  beaten  by  a  lad  of  his  own  age, 
or  if  lie  had  suffered  defeat  at  the  liands  of  a 
smaller  boy,  he  was  usually  soundly  punished 
by  an  indignant  parent  for  liis  misconduct,  and 
for  his  quarrelsome  disposition.     But  there  were 
occasions   on  which  he  was  a  much  disfigured 
boy  with  only  one  thing  to  console  him,  namely, 
he    had   succeeded  in   thrashing  a   bigger   boy 
than  himself  in  a  more  or  less  artistic  fashion , 
and   on   these   occasions    the    boy  was    gravely 
scolded,  but  not  whipped,  at  home  ;  and  he  came 
to  know  that   the  following   day  was  the  best 
time  to  make  an  appeal  to  his  father  for  pocket- 
money.     The  pugnacity  of  the  race,  its  inborn 
admiration  of  courage  and  endurance,  retarded 
the  development  of  the  Christian  consciousness. 
The  merciful  provisions  of  the  INIosaic  statute- 
book  with  regard  to  the  lower  animals  did  not 
produce  societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty 


212       TUE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

to  animals  until  tlie  modern  period.  The 
modern  pugilist  on  the  stage  will  draw,  not 
the  same  audience,  but  as  large  an  audience, 
as  a  Patti  or  a  Booth ;  and  it  apparently  pays 
some  clubs  to  pay  many  thousand  dollars  to 
two  professional  jjugilists  and  rivals  for  the 
championship  to  settle  the  matter  under  their 
auspices  and  within  their  doors. 

All  healthy  men  and  boys,  and  also  all 
healthy  women  and  girls,  delight  in  stories  of 
personal  daring  and  endurance.  Realism  holds 
up  a  picture  of  life,  and  we  say  it  is  artistic. 
Idealism  pictures  life  as  it  ought  to  be,  or  as  it 
might  be,  and  we  say  it  is  suggestive  or  charm- 
ing. Romanticism  pictures  life  in  its  heroic 
possibilities  and  impossibilities,  and  we  say  it  is 
glorious.  Revelation  is  realistic.  No  modern 
realist  can  improve  upon  the  sententious 
brevity  with  which  the  good  and  evil  of  Noah, 
Abi'aham,  Jacob,  David,  and  others  are  related. 
It  is  idealistic,  for  running  through  the  Word  is 
the  silver  thread  of  a  life  that  ought  to  be ;  and 
it  is  romantic,  for  its  heroes  and  martyrs  can 
thrill  the  soul.  AVe  cannot  eradicate  the  ad- 
miration for  strength  and  beauty,  for  they  find 
a  place  in  the  presence  chamber  of  God.     Woe 


THE   SIXTH  COMMANDMENT  213 

to  the  nation  in  whose  schools  and  college^ 
athletic  sports  find  no  place,  and  whose  people 
do  not  delight  in  manly  sports!  Pnit  the  de- 
light must  consist  in  participating  in  them,  not 
in  merely  looking  on  as  spectators.  When 
Greece  and  Rome  were  in  their  glory,  their 
youth  contended  in  the  games.  When  they 
were  in  their  corrupt  decadence,  they  looked  on 
while  slaves  fought  with  each  other  or  with 
wild  beasts  for  their  amusement.  The  curse  of 
professionalism  is  on  the  manly  sports  of  our 
day;  and  professionalism  says  to  the  average 
citizen,  "Pay  your  gate-money,  and  look  on 
and  applaud,  and  make  your  bets,  aud  leave  the 
athletics  to  our  hired  professionals."  It  may 
appear  strange  that  popular  amusements  and 
the  relation  of  the  Christian  consciousness  to 
them  shoukl  be  related  to  the  sixth  command- 
ment ;  but  if  the  supreme  attraction  is  the  ele- 
ment of  danger,  and  the  skill  which  avoids  tlie 
danger,  the  connection  is  at  once  apparent. 

The  Avhole  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  to  pain  and  suffering 
and  death  of  man  and  the  lower  animals  is  in 
the  crudest  possible  shape.  Is  there,  or  is  there 
not,  any  connection  between  cruelty  to  others 


214       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  indifference  to  danger  in  ourselves  ?  Does 
the  practice  of  torturing  others  make  man  more 
stoical  in  the  enduring  of  physical  pain  ?  .  Let 
us  suppose  that  the  Christian  ideal  of  the  more 
advanced  Christian  consciousness  were  to  be- 
come the  rule  of  life.  Nations  have  really 
beaten  their  swords  into  ploughshares,  and  their 
spears  into  pruning-hooks ;  "they  learn  the  art 
of  war  no  more."  It  is  not  the  Millennium,  and 
we  have  still  a  vigorous  and  effective  police ; 
but  there  is  not  a  standing  army  within  the 
borders  of  Christendom.  The  duel  has  become 
a  thing  of  the  past.  Manly  sports  are  culti- 
vated, and  the  gymnasiums  of  colleges,  Young 
men's  Christian  Associations,  and  other  organi- 
zations, are  well  patronized ;  but  a  vigorous  and 
successful  effort  has  been  made  to  so  regulate 
exhibitions  and  games  that  the  risk  to  life  and 
limb  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Profes- 
sionalism has  been  regulated  as  far  as  law  can ; 
and  the  legislation  against  gambling,  pool-sell- 
ing, and  betting  has  been  so  rigidly  enforced 
that  the  amusements,  if  there  Avere  anj^,  that 
could  not  exist  without  gambling,  have  disap- 
peared. This  is  no  impossible  Utopia.  It  is  a 
condition   of  things  which  we   can  imagine  to 


THE  SIXTH  COMMANDMENT  215 

exist  twenty-five  years  lieiice,  and  to  have  been 
brought  about  without  any  moral  or  social  con- 
vulsion. What  would  be  the  result  upon  the 
character  of  man  ?  AVould  there  be  a  loss  in 
manliness  and  in  courage  ?  This  has  been 
boldly  asserted  by  many  writers.  But  it  is. 
difficult  to  find  any  reason  for  such  conjecture. 
The  increased  estimate  of  the  sacredness  of 
human  life  would  lift  to  a  higher  popular  esti- 
mate the  darino-  of  our  fire  bricrades  and  our 
life-boat  service.  A  venerable  Irishman  of  my 
acquaintance  was  in  his  youth  so  impressed 
with  the  dangers  of  coal-mining  in  the  North  of 
England,  that  with  a  due  and  prudent  regard 
for  his  own  personal  comfort  and  safet}^,  he 
enlisted  in  the  British  army,  went  through  the 
whole  of  the  Crimean  war,  and  came  out  of  it  a 
sergeant  with  medals  for  distinguished  service  ; 
and  when  he  revisited  the  scenes  of  his  j^outh, 
and  heard  of  the  accidents  of  various  kinds,  and 
witnessed  tlie  havoc  that  had  been  made  in 
the  ranks  of  his  former  associates,  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  his  decision  had  been 
wise  on  the  mere  grounds  of  23ersonal  safety, 
even  thou^-h  he  had  fousfht  in  the  Crimea 
and    in    the    Indian    mutiny.       Peace    has   her 


216       THE  CHRISTIAN-  CONSCIOUSNESS 

battles,  her  victories,   and  her  heroes,  as  well 
as  Avar. 

In  the  closing  chapter  of  his  "  History  of 
Humane  Progress,"  C.  Loring  Brace  expresses 
his  belief  that  his  history  sliows  the  existence 
of  "A  moral  force  producing  certain  definite 
though  small  results  during  a  certain  period  of 
time,  and  of  a  nature  adapted  to  produce  in- 
definite similar  results  in  unlimited  time."  ^  He 
very  justly  claims  that  the  granting  of  tliese 
premises  proves  Cluistianity  to  be  the  ultimate 
system  of  morals.  His  "  moral  force  "  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness; or  granting  that  this  power  —  not 
ourselves  —  outside  of  ourselves  —  which  makes 
for  righteousness  —  the  moral  force,  being  not 
ourselves,  and  outside  ourselves,  is  not  and  can- 
not be  Christian  consciousness.  Such  a  power 
is  supernatural  and  ultra-rational,  and  it  can 
find  its  expression  only  in  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Philosoph}"  provides  the  mechan- 
ism, and  religion  provides  the  motive-power,  for 
all  moral  progress.  The  Christian  conscious- 
ness discerns  and  applies  the  motive-power. 
Why  was  there  so  little  development  in  morals 

1  Page  469. 


THE  SIXTH  COMMANDMENT  217 

until  the  Reformation  ?  There  was  no  lack  of 
philosophy;  bnt  it  was  neglected  for  scholasti- 
cism, and  there  was  no  motive-power  in  the 
church.  It  is  one  of  the  great  engimas  of  the 
histor}^  of  mind  and  morals,  that  Plato's  "  Re- 
public "  should  have  liad  so  little  influence 
upon  the  social,  moral,  and  ethical  life  of  the 
world.  For  two  thousand  years  the  world  had 
this  masterpiece,  and  not  till  these  two  millen- 
niums had  come  and  gone,  did  its  lofty  thought 
begin  to  blend  with  Christian  culture  in  better- 
ing the  life  of  man. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  remind  the  reader  of 
the  main  contention  and  design  of  this  chapter. 
In  our  previous  instances  and  illustrations  of 
the  relation  of  the  Christian  consciousness  to 
evolution  in  morals  and  in  doctrine,  I  liave 
endeavored  to  show  that  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness, in  its  apprehension  of  God  and  in 
its  conception  of  his  character,  led  the  way,  or 
gave  its  sanction,  to  evolution  and  development 
in  morals  and  in  doctrine  which  sometimes 
seemed  to  antag-onize  our  creeds  and  disreofard 
our  exegesis.  But  in  this  cliapter  we  have 
considered  certain  phases  of  life,  all  bearing  on 
the  letter  or  on  the  spirit  of  the  sixth  command 


218       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

of  the  Decalogue,  in  which  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness not  only  seems  to  be  at  times  inop- 
erative, but  at  other  times  seems  to  retard  the 
church  in  her  pronouncements  against  certain 
moral  and  social  evils.  That  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness should  play  sucli  a  part  does  not  in- 
terfere with  our  acceptance  of  the  belief  in  its 
existence  and  in  its  activit}^  It  enables  us  to 
hail  the  signs  of  its  awakening  in  the  directions 
indicated  as  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  in  the 
life  of  the  world. 


OBJECTIONS  AND   POSSIBILITIES       219 


CHAPTER   XII 

OBJECTIONS    AND    POSSIBILITIES 

Evolution  or  development  in  morals  is  de- 
nied by  some  who  are  recognized  champions  of 
orthodoxy,  as  that  word  is  used  from  the  Prot- 
estant point  of  view.     This  has  been  made  easy 
by   its   natural    opposition    to    the    ethical  and 
moral  systems  which  profess  to  improve  upon 
and  to  supplant  the   Christian  system.     Since 
these    non-Christian    systems    all   hold    to    the 
evolution  of  morals,  is   not  the   contrary  true 
of  Christian  morality?     To  many  minds,  evo- 
lution in  morals  appears  to  be   a  playing  fast 
and  loose  with  the  everlasting  right  and  wrong. 
It    is    rhetorically   convincing    to    assert   that 
right  can  never  become  wrong.      That  is  true 
so''  far  as  it  is  said   regarding  God's  estimate 
of   things;   but,    as    a   matter   of   fact,   history 
tells  us  that  so  far  as  men  are  concerned,  the 
thing   that   was   right  two  hundred  years  ago 
-is   wrong   to-day.     To  this  it   may  be  replied 

that   slavery,    drinking    customs,    and    certain 


220       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

harsher  dogmas,  were  wrong  then,  as  they  are 
now,  Lut  that  men  did  not  know  n.uj  better. 
It  is  man's  tliought  that  changes,  not  God's 
thought.  God's  supreme  w^isdom  is  not  in 
question.  Moral  philosophy  is  the  science  of 
human  conduct,  not  of  the  divine  administra- 
tion. So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  evolution  is 
as  true  in  moral  as  it  is  in  social  and  in  physical 
life ;  and  evolution  in  morals  implies  evolution 
in  doctrine,  for  life  of  the  consistent  self- 
respecting  kind  must  always  be  the  outcome 
of  that  which  a  man  believes.  The  followino- 
quotation  may  be  taken  as  fairly  representing 
the  school  of  thought  to  which  we  refer.  It 
is  a  form  of  apologetic  that  one  shrinks  from 
attacking,  because  one  feels  either  that  he 
does  not  understand,  or  that  he  himself  is  not 
understood:  — 

"  But  moral  laws  —  whatever  has  been  our 
progress  in  the  knowledge  of  mind,  of  liuman 
physiology,  of  climatic  influences,  of  social 
reactions — have  made  no  progress  since  they 
were  laid  down  by  the  Author  of  Christianity. 
Human  philosophies,  many  and  able,  have  been 
propounded  —  new  ones  are  still  propounded  — 
as  substitutes    for   the    ethics    of   Christianity; 


OBJECTIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES       221 

and  yet  not  one  of  its  principles  has  been 
invalidated,  not  a  new  one  has  been  added 
to  them.  The  moral  law  was  long  ago  com- 
pleted; its  statutes  have  been  established  for- 
ever. .  .  .  What  the  combined  ingenuity  of 
man  has  thus  been  unable  to  improve,  we  may 
justly  conclude  the  combined  ingenuity  of  man 
was  incapable  of  originating  or  of  discovering. 
.  .  .  The  Almighty  made  no  moral  laws,  but 
created  man  in  his  own  imaofe.  The  moral 
laws  of  the  divine  nature  were  incorporated  in 
the  nature  of  man."-^ 

If  our  author  means  that  no  moral  precept  of 
Jesus  has  been  proved  to  be  wi'ong,  or  has 
had  to  be  modified  or  reversed,  all  Christians, 
and  almost  all  theists,  will  heartily  agree 
with  him.  If  he  means  that  correct  morals 
and  ethics  with  regard  to  slaver}^,  the  use  of 
stimulants,  and  the  other  developments  in 
morals  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in 
this  work,  were  all  wrapped  up  in  the  precepts 
and  example  of  Christ,  and  only  waited  their 
unfolding,  he  will  again  find  himself  in  harmony 
with  Christian  thinkers  and  with  many  theists. 

1  President  E.  G.  Robinson,  D.D.,LL.D.    Christ  and  Modem 
Thought.     Boston,  1880-81. 


222       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

If  he  is  speaking  of  the  Decalogue,  neither 
more  nor  less,  all  are  agreed.  But  he  uses 
such  expressions  as  ''moral  laws"  and  "the 
moral  law "  as  being  interchangeable,  which 
is  certainly  a  little  confusing.  Wlien  he  af- 
firms that  the  combined  ingenuity  of  man  has 
not  been  able  either  to  originate  or  to  improve 
moral  law,  we  are  in  hearty  accord  with  him ; 
for  the  Christian  consciousness  is  not  to  be 
identified  A\dth  human  ingenuity  pure  and 
simple,  as  we  have  tried  to  prove.  Wlien  he 
says  that  the  Almighty  7nade  no  moral  laws, 
but  created  man  in  his  own  image,  —  "  The 
moral  laws  of  the  divine  nature  were  incorpo- 
rated in  tlie  nature  of  man,"  —  we  accept  the 
statement  as  being  a  very  graphic  statement 
of  that  dignity  of  man  whicli  is  the  theme  of 
the  second  chapter  of  this  book.  But  we  fail 
to  find  in  these  words  any  proof  tliat  there 
has  not  been  an  evolution  in  morals.  He 
makes  an  assertion,  and  then  proceeds  to  prove 
something  else.  It  is  not  to  l)e  expected  that 
Christian  or  even  theist  will  accept  an  evo- 
lution in  morals  having  its  cause  in  the  "  com- 
bined ingenuity  of  man."  In  the  evolutions  or 
development  of  morals,  there  can  be  no  recon- 


OBJECTIONS  AND   POSSIBILITIES       223 

ciliatioii  of  science  and  religion  by  any  philos- 
ophy or  course  of  reasoning  which  ignores  or 
denies  the  Christian  consciousness.  It  Avas  ab- 
solutely necessary  that  he  should  assert  that 
moral  laws  had  "made  no  progress  since  they 
were  laid  down  by  the  Author  of  Christianity  ;  " 
for  if  they  had  their  origin  in  "  the  infinitely 
perfect  nature  of  a  supreme  and  archetypal 
being,"  how  could  change  be  possible?  But 
it  is  easy  to  imagine,  and  also  easy  to  prove, 
that  God  left  man  an  undiscovered  country 
in  matter,  intellect,  and  morals,  to  which  he 
was  to  apply  the  powers  with  which  God  had 
endowed  him,  and  in  which  he  has  made  no- 
table progress. 

There  is  a  meretricious  kind  of  rhetoric,  w^itli 
which,  however,  we  are  far  from  associating  the 
learned  author  whose  opinions  we  have  been 
considering,  which  takes  a  loud  and  long  de- 
light in  assuring  the  public  that  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  iNIount  can  never  cease  to  be  the 
very  voice  of  God  to  us  struggling,  sinning, 
repenting,  and  aspiring  mortals.  Of  course 
they  cannot.  Even  those  agnostics  and  the- 
ists  wdio  refuse  to  entertain  our  doctrines  con- 


224       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

cerning  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  are  ready 
to  confess  the  surpassing  excellence  of  these 
passages,  and  their  singular  adaption  to  the 
social  and  moral  life  of  man.  We  all  bow 
in  lowliest  reverence  before  Him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake.  The  Decalogue  is  the 
Magna  Cliarta  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world. 
But  these  three  marvellous  words  do  not  tell  us 
everything.  We  look  in  them  in  vain  for  the 
morals  of  slavery,  of  marriage,  of  the  points  of 
submission  to  and  of  resistance  to  civil  and 
religious  authority.  The  direct  teaching  of  the 
Word  of  God  is  binding  on  every  man,  and  he 
has  to  beware  how  he  reads  it.  The  inferential 
teaching,  that  comes  to  us  in  its  spirit  rather 
than  in  its  letter,  is  also  binding;  and  we 
have  to  beware  how  we  reason  about  it.  God 
holds  us  to  a  stern  and  strict  accountability. 
Our  consciences  and  his  Word  agree  as  to  this. 
We  are,  in  the  midst  of  our  ethical  difficulties 
and  moral  perplexities,  entitled  to  cry  out, 
''Teach  me  thy  law."  We  can  heartily  agree 
with  Dr.  Robinson  when  he  affirms  that  "the 
moral  laws  of  the  divine  nature  were  incorpo- 
rated in  the  nature  of  man  ;  "  but  with  the  same 
starting-point    we    reacli    an   entirely    different 


OBJECTIONS   AND   POSSIBILITIES       225 

conclusion.  The  moral  law  of  the  divine  na- 
ture, incorporated  in  the  nature  of  almost  all 
the  Cluistian  men  and  women  of  the  South, 
led  them  to  say  with  all  honesty,  "Domestic  sla- 
very is  a  Scriptural  institution,  and  the  Aboli- 
tionism of  the  North  is  atheistical;"  and  the 
same  law  led  the  Cliristian  opponents  of  slavery 
to  say  that  slavery  was  the  sum  of  all  villanies, 
and  was  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  It  is  true  that  murder  can  never  cease 
to  be  murder ;  but  the  question  that  changes  is 
as  to  what  kinds  of  killing  we  shall  call  murder. 
It  is  very  well  to  say  that  moral  laws  have  not 
been  changed  since  they  were  laid  down  by  the 
author  of  Clnistianity,  and  it  would  be  high 
treason  to  our  King  to  assert  anything  to  the 
contrary.  We  do  not  say  (who  does  say?) 
that  any  word  of  Christ's  can  pass  away.  Eth- 
ical systems,  which  ignore  religion,  have  been 
attempted;  but  even  their  contention  is  not 
with  the  word  or  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  as 
they  are  at  great  pains  to  affirm ;  but  it  is  with 
the  moral  systems  that  have  been  developed 
in  the  Christian  era. 

It  is  easy  to  affirm,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to 
believe,  that  every  possible  change  for  good  will 


226        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

be  found  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  example 
and  precepts  of  Jesus.  We  can  imagine  a  state 
of  society  in  which  drunkenness  was  very  rare, 
in  which  there  were  not  many  requiring  charity, 
and  wlien  it  was  required,  it  was  freely  given, 
and  received  without  loss  of  self-respect.  We 
can  imagine  a  good  time  to  come,  when  social 
unrest  and  discontent  will  be  extremely  rare, 
and  when  the  war  and  greed  and  violence 
which  sometimes  mark  the  relations  of  labor 
and  ca|)ital  shall  have  passed  away.  And  we 
believe  that  it  is  only  the  spirit  of  Christ  that 
can  secure  this.  When  it  does  come,  tliose  who 
are  then  living  will  say  that  the  truth  and 
mercy  and  justice,  the  altruism  and  the  love, 
which  then  control  the  lives  of  men,  were  always 
in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  ;  but  men's  ears  were 
stopped  so  that  they  could  not  hear ;  and  they  had 
eyes,  but  they  did  not  see.  All  this  may  Jbe  —  we 
believe  is —  true  ;  but  there  is  an  evolution,  both 
in  morals  and  in  doctrine.  This  is  the  simple  fact 
of  history.  We  may  give  it  many  names.  One 
says  it  is  the  new  light  that  is  ever  streaming 
from  the  Word  of  life.  Another  says  it  is  the 
work  of  the  energizing  Spirit.  It  is  line  upon 
line,  precept   upon  j)i"ecept.     We  get  truth  as 


OBJECTIONS   AND   POSSIBILITIES       227 

we  are  able  to  bear  it.  Development  in  morals 
as  in  doctrine  does  not  imply  that  the  original 
type  or  primal  statement  of  the  trnth  has  been 
reversed  or  changed.  Truth  is  a  living  thing. 
It  is  the  word  of  life.  Like  every  living  thing, 
it  must  grow,  change,  and  develop. 

llie  thought  of  tlie  finite  creature  is  limited, 
it  is  not  necessarily  immortal;  but  the  thought 
of  the  infinite  One  is  unlimited  and  immortal. 
Nor  does  it  live  in  the  unchanging  stereotype. 
A  prophet  of    Israel   assures   us  that  God  dis- 
tinctly declares   that   his    thoughts    are    unlike 
man's.i      In    what    respect    are    they    unlike? 
There  is  an  infinite   difference  represented  by 
the  distance  between  heaven  and  earth.     That 
is  a  difference  of  degree,  but  there  is  also  a  dif- 
ference in  kind.     Tlie  rain  and  the  snow  come 
down,  and  make  the  earth  fertile  and  life-sus- 
taining.    So   it  is  with  God^s  Word.     It  does 
not  return  to  him  void.     It  accomplishes  that 
which  he  pleases.     It  never  fails  to  reach  the 
point  to  which  it  has  been  sent.     This   is  the 
difference   between    the    divine   word   and    the 
human  word.     Our  words  may  be  meaningless, 
misleading,   insincere,  truthful,  living,    or  life- 

1  Isa.  Iv.  8-10. 


228       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

less.  When  God  or  man  speaks  a  living  word, 
it  grows.  Christ  spake  as  never  man  sj^ake, 
because  they  were  living  words,  and  they  have 
been  growing  ever  since  with  the  bk)om  of  im- 
mortality on  them.  The  Word  of  God  lives 
and  abides  forever ;  but  it  does  not  abide  in  an 
everlasting  monotone.  It  grows  because  it 
lives.  What  Dr.  Robinson  means  when  he  says, 
''  But  moral  laws  —  whatever  has  been  our 
progress  in  the  knowledge  of  mind,  of  human 
physiology,  of  climatic  influences,  of  social  reac- 
tions —  have  made  no  progress  since  they  were 
laid  down  by  the  Author  of  Christianity,"  is 
hard  to  determine. 

In  tlie  opening  lecture  of  the  volume  from 
which  the  quotation  under  consideration  was 
taken,  Joseph  Cook  says  :  "  If  we  follow  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,  we  shall  utter  to  our  age  our 
secret  convictions.  If  we  follow  the  impulse  of 
the  finger  of  the  Spirit  upon  our  souls,  as  we 
are  differently  trained  by  God's  providence  and 
by  this  constant  touch  of  Christ's  pierced  right 
hand,  we  shall  utter  messages  so  diversified  as  to 
meet  the  diversified  wants  of  our  age."  Joseph 
Cook  has  himself  been  the  proof  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  faith  and  hope  which  he  expressed 


OBJECTIONS   AND  POSSIBILITIES       229 

in  these  words  fifteen  years  ago.  It  is  easier 
to  harmonize  these  eloquent  words  witli  the 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  consciousness  and  the 
evolution  of  morals,  than  to  harmonize  them 
with  the  views  of  Dr.  Robinson. 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  anticipated  some  of  the 
problems  of  to-day,  when  in  his  study  of  the 
"  Progress  of  Ethical  Philosophy  "  he  said  that 
the  agreement  as  to  the  rule  of  life  was  plain. 
The  question  is  as  to  how  men  have  come  to 
agree  in  the  rule  of  life.  He  might  have  added 
that  it  was  also  an  interesting  study  as  to  how 
men  came  to  disagree  in  the  rule  of  life.  The 
agreement  is  on  a  few  general  principles,  and  on 
certain  abstractions  called  virtues  which  men 
persist  in  defining  for  their  own  benefit.  Moral 
science  always  asks  the  question  :  "  What  ought 
to  be?  what  is  right?  what  is  truth?"  She  knows 
what  the  everhxsting  ought  and  right  and  Irutli 
are;  and  in  the  practical  application  of  them  slie 
makes  progress.  What  is  the  ought  and  right 
and  truth  about  this  man  who  denies  the  tilings 
that  most  men  believe?  Moral  science  in  the 
sixteenth  century  replies :  ''  The  stake,  the  inqui- 
sition, or,  if  you  will  be  merciful,  fine,  imprison- 
ment, and  banishment."     Moral  science  to-day 


230       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

saj-s  :  "  Persuasion  is  lawful ;  coercion  in  every 
form  is  unlawful."  The  theologian  of  the  seven- 
teenth centuiy  said,  as  an  exegete  and  as  a  moral 
philosopher,  the  Bible  teaches  the  existence  of 
witchcraft;  it  gives  both  example  and  jDrecept 
as  to  the  treatment  of  witches.  Certain  persons 
are  charged  with  witchcraft  here  in  our  midst. 
They  are  tried,  and  the  evidence  is  found  satis- 
factory as  a  proof  of  guilt.  Wliat  remains  to  be 
done?  Why,  only  this — that  we  must  honor 
by  imitation  the  Bible  method  of  treating  witch- 
craft. The  logic  is  faultless.  It  was  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  which  rebelled. 

Much  might  be  said  about  the  presence  or 
absence  of  the  Christian  consciousness  in  sectari- 
anism. The  great  majority  of  men  are  in  the 
religious  denomination  to  which  they  belong  by 
inheritance  and  b}^  environment.  While  it  can 
be  granted  that  tlie  great  majority  of  each  denom- 
ination are  intelligently  persuaded  that  theirs 
is  the  best,  or  as  good  as  any,  their  conviction 
did  not  lead  them  into  their  particular  fold, 
altliough  it  may  help  to  keep  them  there.  We 
grant  the  scholarship  and  honesty  of  the  founders 
of  Episcopacy,  Presbyterianism,  Congregational- 
ism, Methodism,  etc.     But  they  cannot  all  be 


OBJECTIONS  AND   POSSIBILITIES       231 

right.     It  may  be  that  not  one  of  them  is  right. 
We  grant  the  honesty  and  the  scholarship  of  the 
contemporary    champions   of   these  sects.     But 
we  cannot  believe  that  the  Spirit  has  led  any 
sect  into  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth;  although  ardent  apologists  are 
ready  to  claim  all  this  for  each  of  them.     When 
the    Christian    consciousness  is    developed,  the 
oneness  for  which  the  Christ  prayed  will  come. 
There    is   spiritual   law   in   the  natural  world. 
We  are,  as  denominations  and  as  congregations, 
apart  from  -each  other,  because  we  are  apart  from 
Christ  our  Life   and   our  King.     Were  He    to 
appear  on  some  swelling  mount  in  the  midst  of 
a  vast  prairie,  and  were  the  world  gathered  round 
to  greet  the  King.     All  eyes  are  fixed  upon  the 
mount  of  vision.     From  north,  south,  east,  and 
west  they  look  up  to  this  hill  of  God.     When 
at  last  the  vision  of  his  beauty  and  his  glory  fills 
their  eyes  and  their  hearts,  by  the  mighty  power 
of  love  they  are  moved  to  take  some  steps  nearer 
to  the  mount  on  which  they  behold  the  shining 
feet  of  the  Son  of  God.    By  these  steps  towards 
a   common  centre,   they  are  every  man  drawn 
nearer  to  every  other  man.     The  nearer  we  are 
to  Christ,  the  nearer  we  must  be  to  each  other. 


232        THE  CHBISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Grindehvald  Conferences,  Evangelical  Alliances, 
and  Committees  on  Unioli,  a})pointed  by  different 
denominations,  are  all  very  good  ;  bnt  they  are 
all  empiric,  except  in  so  far  as  they  help  tlie 
development  of  that  fulness  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  which  will  make  separation  as 
impossible  as  union  now  is.  When  we  take 
comfort  in  saj^ing  that  our  failure  to  secure  a 
consensus  in  dogma  or  in  morals  is  parallel  to 
our  failure  to  secure  aorreement  in  science  or  in 

o 

politics,  we  write  our  own  condemnation,  be- 
cause we  liave  a  solvent  of  our  difficulties 
which  they  do  not  possess. 

Schleiermacher  died  in  1834.  He  became 
more  evangelical  towards  tlie  end  of  liis  life, 
and  the  whole  tendency  of  his  teaching  was 
one  of  reconciliation.  He  believed  that  theol- 
ogy could  be  rescued  from  that  degradation 
which  was  caused  by  its  changing  with  tlie 
continually  changing  systems  of  philosophy. 
He  magnified  tlie  inner  life  of  the  soul  in  its 
relation  to  God.  With  him  religious  feeling 
meant  absolute  dependence  on  God.  He  was 
against  both  supranaturalism  and  rationalism ; 
but  he  believed  in  the  possibilit}^  of  their 
reconciliation.      In    his    Christian    ethics,    the 


OBJECTIONS   AND   POSSIBILITIES       233 

Christian  consciousness  is  his  foundation  and 
starting-point.  He  tried  to  reconcile  science 
with  religion.  We  do  not  wonder  at  the  in- 
fluence for  good  that  his  writings  have  liad 
upon  much  of  our  modern  religious  thought. 
But  it  must  be  granted  that  so  far  as  the 
Christian  consciousness  is  concerned,  his  influ- 
ence was  against  its  favorable  reception  by 
tlie  Christian  world.  Schleiermacher  had  all 
the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  great 
German  thinkers.  His  strength  lay  in  his 
originality  as  a  thinker,  his  profound  rever- 
ence for  God,  and  his  efforts  at  reconciliation 
of  opposing  doctrines.  His  weakness  was  that 
of  more  tlian  one  great  German  theologian. 
He  had  to  found  a  school  and  to  construct 
a  system.  The  Christian  consciousness  was 
a  reality ;  l)ut  instead  of  patiently  endeavor- 
ing to  find  the  law  of  it  in  the  individual 
and  in  the  community,  and  the  evidences  of 
it  in  history,  he  puts  it  on  a  throne,  and 
makes  it  supreme.  He  rejects  the  Trinity 
because  it  is  not  in  the  field  of  the  Christian 
consciousness.  No  wonder  that  orthodoxy  be- 
came alarmed,  and  imagined  that  this  new 
thing  was  a  cunning  device  of  the  enemy. 


234       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

We  find  certain  Avriters  using  it  to  main- 
tain tlieir  position  in  eschatology,  inspiration, 
and  so  forth ;  but  a  weapon  must  not  be 
judged  b}'  tlife  arm  that  wields  it,  or  by  the 
motive  whicli  causes  the  blow.  As  we  have 
already  stated  in  a  preceding  chapter,  we  make 
no  claim  for  the  infallibility  of  the  Christian 
consciousness ;  bnt  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
to  the  individual  the  Christian  consciousness 
is  absolute  certainty.  To  separate  error  of 
which  we  may  feel  very  certain  from  that 
concernino-  which  the  Christian  consciousness 
gives  us  certainty,  is  not  always  an  easy  task. 

The  scepticism  that  was  based  on  the  as- 
serted antagonism  of  phj^sical  science  to  tlie 
teachings  of  the  Scriptures  has  lost  much  of 
its  importance,  not  only  because  theology  has 
reconciled  some  of  the  statements  of  science 
with  tlie  teaching  of  Scripture,  but  also  ])ecause 
science  has  been  again  and  again  proved  to  be 
crude  and  hasty  in  her  conclusions.  Some 
of  the  most  eminent  scientific  men  of  our 
da}^  are  earnest  Christians,  and  able  defenders 
of  revealed  religion.  It  is  easy  to  anticipate 
and  -to  believe  in  that  comparatively  near 
future,    when    the    last   echoes    of    the    contro- 


OBJECTIONS  AND   POSSIBILITIES       235 

versy  between  science  and  religion  shall  have 
died  away,  and  the  conflict  of  the  last  fifty 
years  shall  have  become  a  matter  of  historical 
rather  than  of  living  interest. 

The  higher  criticism  is  for  the  most  part 
reverent ;  and  while  its  opponents  call  it  de- 
structive, it  calls  itself  constructive.  But  even 
were  its  avowed  purpose  the  assault  on  re- 
vealed religion  which  its  opponents  claim  tliat 
it  is,  it  is  a  controversy  that  lias  in  itself  the 
promise  of  finality.  Were  the  conflict  limited 
to  textual  criticism  and  analysis,  the  opinions 
of  the  opposing  groups  of  scholars  would,  ere 
long,  assume  definite  shape;  and  tlie  questions 
at  issue  would  be  settled  as  the  millennarian 
question  is  settled,  or  as  the  question  as  to 
the  subjects  and  mode  of  baptism  is  settled, — 
that  is,  by  the  recognition  of  irreconcilable 
difference  of  interpretation  wliicli  we  may  in 
charity  and  in  self-complacence  lay  at  the 
door  of  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind. 
Whether  this  is  the  only  possible  settlement, 
is  an  open  question.  It  is  possible,  but  not 
probable,  that  advancing  scholarship  and  ar- 
chseological  discoveries  may  give  complete  vic- 
tory  to   one   or  other  of  the   opposing  critical 


236       THE   CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

schools.  Resolutions  as  to  original  autographs 
are  proofs  of  temper  rather  than  of  convic- 
tion; but  resolutions  prove  nothing.  When  the 
thing  to  be  believed  is  settled  by  a  majority 
vote,  the  minority  ought  to  be  dealt  with  in 
no  uncertain  fashion.  Meanwhile,  notwith- 
standing the  lack  of  wisdom  wliicli  l)otli  parties 
have  occasionally  exhibited,  we  may  rest  as- 
sured that  the  worst  of  the  storm  lias  blown 
over,  and  that  the  churches  of  Britain  and 
America  are  not  to  be  rent  asunder  by  the 
higher  criticism. 

The  Christian  consciousness  has  no  place  in 
the  questions  at  issue  between  science  and  re- 
ligion, or  in  the  questions  raised  by  the  higher 
criticism,  except  in  so  far  as  ever  the  character 
of  God  may  be  involved  ;  and  many  hold  that 
the  character  of  God  is  not  involved  in  those 
issues.  When  the  time  of  a  correct  historical 
perspective  has  been  reached,  and  some  scholar 
of  the  future  shall  bring  the  history  of  apolo- 
getics up  to  date,  the  conflict  between  science 
and  religion  and  the  years  of  the  hicrher  criti- 
cism  will  be  but  incidents  and  episodes  of  a 
mighty  whole. 

The  moral  difficulty  is  perennial  and  persis- 


OBJECTIONS   ANT)   POSSIBILITIES       237 

\ent.  It  has  been  the  stronghold  of  scepti- 
cAsm  of  every  shade  throughout  the  centuries. 
W^e  may  put  to  one  side  all  consideration  of 
of  dishonest  doubt;  the  doubt  that  is  to  honest 
doubt  what  hypocris}^  is  to  religion;  the  doubt 
that  traffics  on  itself,  and  exhibits  its  sores  for 
money  ;  the  doubt  that  makes  itself  tlie  justi- 
fication of  an  unclean  life,  or  in  any  other  wa}^ 
demonstrates  that  it  is  a  conscious  lie.  Such 
a  perversion  of  the  moral  nature  has  to  be 
classed  with  other  forms  of  open  or  of  secret 
sin. 

But  there  is  honest  doubt ;  and  while  we  may 
not  be  able  to  agree  with  Tennyson  when  he 
said  that  there  lived  more  faitli  in  honest 
doubt  than  in  half  the  creeds,  our  hearts  go 
out  in  loving  kindness  to  the  men  who  beat 
their  way  fi'om  doubt  to  faith  until  at  length 
the  discord  of  their  lives  becomes  divinest 
harmon}'.  We  can  and  do  respect  the  men  of 
clean  lives,  —  men  who  are  faithful  to  domes- 
tic ties  and  to  public  duties,  — even  when  they, 
wdth  apparent  relish  at  their  work,  persistently 
assail  revealed  religion.  Goethe  somewhere  re- 
marks that  the  mark  of  an  honest  doubter  is 
his   desire   to  get  rid  of   his  doubts.     We  will 


238       THE   CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

not  presume  to  judge  men  ;  and,  therefore,  we 
dare  not  say  liow  many  of  our  sceptical  writers 
of  to-day  are  honest  according  to  this  standard. 
The  test  is  too  severe,  for  we  may  concede 
honesty  to  the  doubter  who  is  not  conscious  of 
any  desire  to  get  rid  of  his  doubts.  But  while 
granting  this,  we  may  well  doubt  the  moral 
honesty  of  the  sceptic  who  can  live  and  die 
without  earnest  longing  for  the  faith  and  the 
peace  which  he  sees  in  others.  Christian  living 
and  dying  is  not  a  theory  or  a  dream.  It  is  an 
every -day  reality. 

But  there  is  honest  doubt,  and  there  are 
honest  doubters.  This  doubt  is  moral,  even 
when  we  call  it  intellectual.  The  intellect 
is  called  into  the  service  of  doubt,  for  honest 
doubt  must  ever  seek  to  justify  itself.  The 
Christian  consciousness  of  the  believer  en- 
ables him  to  touch  this  doubt  with  liealing. 
God  asks  us  to  prove  him  and  try  him.  He 
lias  made  us  in  his  image,  and  given  us  dig- 
nity. God  judges  us,  and  we  must  judge 
God.  We  must  be  able  to  know  clearly  what 
we  think  about  God  and  Christ.  We  can  only 
justify  God  to  man  in  propoi'tion  to  our  con- 
sciousness of  God.     The  mission  of  Christ  was 


OBJECTIONS  AND   POSSIBILITIES       239 

to  reveal  the  Fiitlier;  mid  the  more  of  the  Cliris- 
tian  consciousness  that  we  possess,  the  more 
shall  ^\■e  be  able  to  reveal  God  to  others.  In  its 
last  analysis,  honest  doubt  is  not  the  questionincr 
of  miracles,  or  inspiration,  or  the  immortality 
of  the  soul ;  it  is  a  misapprehension  of  the  na- 
ture and  the  character  of  God.  Some  Chris- 
tians and  many  theists  are  worshipping  an  idol 
of  their  own  making  which  they  call  God. 
"Show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us.^'i 
Tlie  Christian  consciousness  reveals  God. 

There    are    many    earnest    and    diligent  ob- 
servers of   the  signs   of    the    times  who  see  in 
the  close  of   our  century  the  most  momentous 
time   in    the    history    of    the   Avorld.     Many   of 
those  who  do  not  dabble  in  figures   and   dates 
in  search  for  tliat  hour  which  no  man  knows, 
are,  nevertlieless,  persuaded  of  the  probability 
of   the   near  approach  of   tlie  end  of  tlie  'age. 
There    are    otliers    whose    reasoning    does   not 
lead  them  in  this  direction,  who  are  convinced 
that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  stupendous  political, 
social,  and  religious  changes.     Some  publicists 
are   sufficiently   daring  to   assert   that   another 
great  European  war  is '  impossible  ;  but  that  if 

1  John  xiv.  8. 


240       THE  CHRISTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

it  does  occur,  it  will  lead  to  the  swift  over- 
throw of  this  overgrown  militar3dsm,  which, 
like  a  dead  weight  of  barbarism,  clings  round 
the  neck  of  Christian  civilization.  When  the 
hour  and  the  man  come,  the  province  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  will  be  recognized  as 
it  has  not  been  in  the  past. 

The  three  greatest  movements  of  the  latter 
half  of  our  closing  century  in  religious  life 
and  work  are  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, the  Salvation  Army,  and  the  Young 
People's  Societies  of  Christian  Endeavor.  Sir 
George  Williams,  General  Booth,  and  Dr.  Clark, 
the  justly  esteemed  fathers  and  founders  of 
these  three  world-wide  movements,  are  all  at 
the  front,  each  one  being  still  at  the  head  of  the 
body  which  he  founded.  Each  one  of  these  great 
movements  has  risen  by  leaps  and  bounds  from 
obscurity  and  comparative  insignificance  into 
the  world  fame  which  it  now  has.  It  may  be 
safely  asserted  that  none  of  these  three  great 
leaders  saw  the  world-wide  name  and  fame  that 
were  coming  to  the  societies  which  they  organ- 
ized. While  they  are  fit  men,  men  of  will 
power,  and  of  administrative  ability,  as  well  as 
of   personal    consecration  to    their  good   work, 


OBJECTIONS   AND   POSSIBILITIES       241 

none  so  ready  and  willing  as  tliey  are  to  confess 
that  they  did  not  see  the  grand  future,  but  they 
were  conscious  of  present  duty.  Their  Christian 
consciousness  approved  the  thing  that  they  did. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  had  to 
win  its  way  against  the  lukewarmness,  the  sus- 
picion, and  even  the  active  opposition,  of 
ministers  and  of  churches ;  but  the  movement 
had  friends  as  well  as  opponents  among  the 
clergy.  The  Salvation  Army  was  subjected  to 
the  rough  and  ready  abuse  of  the  mob,  and 
to  the  petty  tyranny  of  the  Dogberries,  who  are 
not  all  dead.  The  majority  of  church-going, 
respectable  people  voted  it  a  well-meant  extrav- 
agance, and  would  have  hailed  its  natural  extinc- 
tion with  satisfaction,  though  they  upheld  their 
right  to  march  army  fashion.  To-day  the  Sal- 
vation Army  is  one  of  the  great  factors  in  all 
social  problems,  and  the  self-willed  and  erratic 
ex-Methodist  preacher  is  consulted  by  bishops 
and  statesmen.  Learning  and  culture  join  in  ap- 
plauding the  old  hero  ;  but  he  has  not  forgotten 
the  days  when  decayed  cabbages  and  ancient 
eggs  were  thrown  at  him. 

The   Young   People's  Societies   of    Christian 
Endeavor  made  such  a  quick  march  into  all  the 


242       THE   CHIilSTIAN   CONSCIOUSNESS 

churches,  and  overcame  all  question  and  oppo- 
sition so  quickly,  that  we  almost  forget  that 
there  was  any  question  or  debate  or  opposition. 
God  is  in  his  world ;  and  in  his  moral  and  spirit- 
ual world  he  is  in  it  by  being  in  the  hearts  of 
men.  These  three  men  were  chosen  for  this 
work  tliat  was  given  to  each  of  them.  They 
could  not  perhaps  qnote  chapter  and  verse  for 
ever}^  step  that  they  took ;  but  it  was  a  pathway* 
of  prayer,  and  their  Christian  consciousness  was 
contented. 

Our  denominations  and  our  common  Chris- 
tianity have  achieved  much.  There  is  no  need 
for  pessimism;  but  the  failures  are  many,  and 
the  strifes  are  many.  When  the  hour  and  the 
man  come  that  shall  lead  us  into  the  better 
time  that  is  coming,  there  may  be  antagonism, 
but  the  victory  is  sure.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness will  save  us  from  the  selfishness 
that  characterizes  our  administration  of  our 
material  possessions,  and  from  the  strife  and 
vainglory  of  ecclesiasticism.  Its  positive  gift 
to  the  church  of  the  future  is  that  largeness  of 
view  which  Avill  enable  the  denominations  to 
forget  their  dead  past,  and  to  go  forward  one 
army  to  possess  the  earth.     The  good  time  com- 


OBJECTIONS   AND  POSSIBILITIES,       243 

ing  will  in  some  things  resemble  tlie  eliuieli 
before  sehisms  rent  her,  and  heresies  distressed 
her.  '^  One  body,  one  spirit,  one  liope,  one 
Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all, 
and  IN  YOU  ALL."  1  "  God  in  us  "  is  the  key  to 
the  whole.  This  is  the  fairest  and  fullest  ex- 
pression of  the  "^  Christian  consciousness." 

There  have  been  developments  in  morals  and 
in  dogma  that  are  ultra-biblical  so  far  as  all 
current  and  antecedent  exegesis  was  concerned. 
After  the  evolution  was  an  accomplished  fact, 
an  ex  post  facto  interpretation  comes  to  the 
front,  and  justifies  the  WAYS  OF  MAN  TO  GOD. 
It  vaguely  defines  itself  as  the  spirit,  in  con- 
tradistinction from  the  letter,  of  the  word.^  No 
passage  has  been  of  such  various  use  as  this  in 
which  Paul  draws  a  sharp  contrast  between  the 
method  and  genius  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments. The  doctrine  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness solves  past  difficulties,  and  promises 
a  future  of  gracious  possibilities.  It  is  always 
reverent.  It  believes  in  the  indwelling  Christ. 
The  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  can  never  thrill 
the  world  with  holy  purpose  until  the  Clnistian 

1  Epli.  iv.  4  6.  2  2  Cor.  iii.  G. 


244       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIOUSNESS 

consciousness  is  heartily  recognized  and  ac- 
cepted. The  Christ  in  us  struggles  in  vain 
for  fullest  expression  until  we  hail  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness.  The  Christian  conscious- 
ness has  ultra-biblical  sanctions,  but  it  has  no 
ultra-Christian  sanctions  in  morals  and  in  dogma. 
"  For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  this 
is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

1  1  Cor.  iii.  11. 


